Burnley striker Andre Gray charged by FA over homophobic tweets

The comments, put on his Twitter profile while he was a non-league player, came to light over the weekend after he scored his first Premier League goal in the 2-0 win over Liverpool.

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A statement from the FA said: “Burnley’s Andre Gray has been charged with misconduct in respect of social media comments made between January 9, 2012, and March 11, 2012.

“It is alleged the comments were abusive and/or insulting and/or improper and/or brought the game into disrepute contrary to FA Rule E3(1).

“It is further alleged that these breaches include reference to an ‘aggravating factor’, namely, sexual orientation and/or gender and/or colour and/or race contrary to FA Rule E3(2).

“The player has until 6pm on Wednesday, August 31, to respond to the charge.”

The 25-year-old released a statement on Saturday night apologising and asking for forgiveness.

He said: “I want to offer a sincere and unreserved apology to anybody I may have offended in relation to these tweets.

“The tweets were posted four years ago when I was a completely different person to the man I am now.

“I was at a very different point in my life back then - one that I’ve worked hard to move on from.

“Thankfully a lot has changed in my life since then. I have experienced a lot over the past four years and have had to take responsibility for a number of things in my life which has enabled me to mature and grow as a person since that time.

“I have a lot of regrets regarding a number of things I’ve done in the past and realise I have made some big mistakes, none more so than these tweets, but I would like to stress that I’ve worked incredibly hard to completely transform my life since that time.

“To clarify, I do not hold the beliefs written in those tweets whatsoever. I can assure everybody that I am absolutely not homophobic and as said previously I can only apologise and ask for forgiveness to anyone I offended.”