A LIFELONG Manchester United fan from Co Armagh has received an apology from the club after it wrongly accused him of online racist abuse and banned him from attending any matches.
Supporter Ryan Butler was contacted following a match with Tottenham Hotspur on April 11 and told his membership and ability to book tickets to future games was being suspended for three years.
The club had taken action against six fans on April 30 in response to racist online abuse aimed at Spurs player Son Heung-min.
In a statement following the action, a club spokesperson said it had a "zero-tolerance policy against discriminatory abuse and a clear sanctions policy against any fans committing such behaviour".
However, Mr Butler had not engaged in any such activity, and his own investigation into the matter found that Manchester United had wrongly associated him with a social media account belonging to someone with the same surname.
An initial appeal against the ban had failed before Mr Butler lodged a GDPR access request and was able to view a screenshot of a tweet from the account he was wrongly linked to.
Mr Butler told the Belfast Telegraph this week: "I don't even have Twitter. They were unwilling to give me any other information than what was shown in that screenshot."
After Manchester United clarified they had made an error in alleging Mr Butler had engaged in the racist abuse, it reversed the action against him and apologised.
"In this case, we regrettably made a mistake and the ban was revoked. We apologise to Mr Butler," a spokesperson said.