Ipswich Town Football Club have criticised an offensive Twitter post about former Norwich City player Justin Fashanu, which has left Canaries fans outraged.

The Blues have moved quickly to make it clear that the tweet was unacceptable, which had said 'this year for Halloween we're going as Fashanu #ITFC' with a smiley face emoji. The message accompanied an image of three cartoon skeletons with nooses around their necks.

Mr Fashanu, the first openly gay professional player in English football, was found hanged in 1998 at the age of 37.

After the tweet was brought to the attention of Town's official Twitter account, a spokesman replied: 'Thanks for bringing this to our attention. I will forward this to the relevant people. We do not condone this sort of thing in any way.'

The tweet has since been reported and removed from the social network. We have decided not to reproduce the highly offensive image.

Fans of both clubs have been enjoying plenty of banter ahead of this Sunday's East Anglian derby at Portman Road, the first meeting of the rivals of this season. However, the offensive tweet has overstepped the mark and upset fans on both sides of the border.

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