French Paper L'Equipe Slammed Over '100% White Team' Led by a 'Ginger' Burnley Comments

Burnley have become embroiled in something of a Christmas firestorm after media reports in France appeared to suggest that the club was racist.

The usually reliable French media publication L'Equipe published an article about the biggest "surprise package" of the 2017/18 Premier League season thus far, but caused huge controversy over their insinuation that the Clarets were against playing footballers from black or ethnic minority backgrounds.

Burnley, who currently sit seventh in England's top flight, will no doubt be shocked to learn of the article which calls them a "100% white team with players with flattened noses and big ears".

A large portion of the piece states: "(They are) coached by a ginger Englishman, in a city who voted 70% for Brexit and which has been the breeding ground of racial tensions.

“Formed with 80% British players and 100% white players, Burnley is the surprise team of the season. 40 kilo-meters north of Manchester, everything is from another century.

"There is not a single black player in the seventh team in the Premier League, led by a red-haired Englishman, Sean Dyche. In fact, there was a colored player in the early season photo, Daniel Agyei, but he was loaned to Walsall."

The news piece has caused ire and anger on social media since it was published on Christmas Eve, and it's difficult to determine what else the article states as most of it is hidden behind a paywall.

Footballs fans who have accessed the rest of the piece have claimed that it is far less controversial as you read on, but what matters is what the vast majority can see and it doesn't make for good reading.

Burnley have amassed 32 points from their first 19 games of the league campaign, and face Manchester United at Old Trafford on Boxing Day.