Ben Mee came out and condemned a plane that fly over the Etihad with the Slogan ‘White Lives Matter Burnley’ and has been praised by Rio Ferdinand for his actions.

Rio Ferdinand has praised Ben Mee after he condemned the fans who flew a plane with the slogan ‘White Lives Matter Burnley’ over the Etihad.

Well Said Ben Mee… Respect 👌🏽 https://t.co/SggDm4SdYl

— Rio Ferdinand (@rioferdy5) June 22, 2020

Before Premier League games players have taken a knee and seen names on shirts replaced with Black Lives Matter.

Manchester City’s game with Burnley was no different but a plane was flown overhead with the controversial slogan.

Clarets captain Mee came out and said that he was “embarrassed” about the incident.

And Ferdinand responded on Twitter by saying:

Well Said Ben Mee… Respect.

The central defender, who saw his side ship five goals against City, was keen to address the banner before even discussing matters on the pitch when interviewed after the contest.

He said on Sky Sports:

I’m ashamed and embarrassed that a small number of our hands have decided to fly that around the stadium.

They have completed the point. There’s a group of lads in there that is embarrassed to see that, they’ve missed the point of the whole thing we are trying to achieve and these people need to come into the 21st century and educate themselves.

It does not represent what the club is about, what the players are about and what the a majority of the fans are about, that’s for sure. It’s a small minority of people and I’m really upset that happened.

Literally as we were coming out, we heard some whispers that it might happen, the club were trying to stop it. I hope it doesn’t happen again. We are ashamed and upset.

Burnley also released a statement saying they

strongly condemns the actions of those responsible for the aircraft and offensive banner that flew over The Etihad Stadium on Monday evening.

We wish to make it clear that those responsible are not welcome at Turf Moor.

This, in no way, represents what Burnley Football Club stands for and we will work fully with the authorities to identify those responsible and take appropriate action.

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.