A former Lincoln City groundsman who sent a series of offensive tweets and described Muslims as a "cancer" has been sacked by the club.
Ashley Barratt was dismissed 12 hours after the club were made aware of the tweets, following an investigation.
Barratt's tweets were posted online between September and October 2017, before he became an employee at the club.
In a series of disgraceful racist tweets, Barratt referred to members of the Muslim community as 'a cancer', claimed they were 'taking over Europe' and referred to London, Birmingham, Leeds, Bradford and Manchester, which all have high Muslim populations, as 'hellholes'.
Mr Barratt has since deleted his Twitter account.
His actions were brought to light by a number of different anti-racist groups and activists on Twitter including Resisting Hate.
A spokesperson for Lincoln City said: "Lincoln City Football Club was recently made aware of certain racial comments made by a club employee on social media which were potentially inflammatory and discriminatory in nature.
"These comments were made prior to the person in question becoming an employee of the club, however, Lincoln City Football Club does not condone racism in any form, on or off the field, and any behaviour of this type by anyone connected with the Club is totally unacceptable.
"The club have since undertaken a full investigation into this matter, as a result of which the employee has been dismissed from their position."
Kick It Out confirmed that they were aware of the tweets and had reported the matter to the FA and Lincoln City Football Club.
A spokesperson said: "Kick It Out received a report of several tweets of a prejudicial nature posted by an employee of Lincoln City Football Club, which we forwarded to the club.
“We are pleased to see they have taken swift and decisive action on the matter.
“Abuse such as this has no place in football or society and we are appalled someone working in the game can harbour such abhorrent views.”
