English soccer player Tom Pope came under fire Sunday after he shared a post on his Twitter feed, saying the Rothschilds, a renowned Jewish dynasty, will be "crowned champions of every bank on the planet".
The striker, who plays for League Two side Port Vale FC, wrote the controversial statement in response to a Twitter user who asked him to "predict the results of World War III".
"We invade Iran then Cuba then North Korea then the Rothchilds [sic] are crowned champions of every bank on the planet," Pope's tweet read.
When warned by other Twitter users that his comments could be seen as racist, Pope seemed to be unaware of the problematic nature of his comments.
"I mentioned them owning the banks which is fact and now I’m facing all this," the 34-year-old wrote in response to one of the commenters. "How is it racist?? Seriously is someone out to destroy me or what?"
Pope has since deleted the tweet and published a statement Monday on his club's website, stating that he was "unaware of any link between the Rothschild family and the Jewish community."
"Following the reaction to my response on Twitter about the Rothschilds, I was unaware of any link between the Rothchild [sic] family and the Jewish community," Pope wrote. "If I have caused offence to anyone, I'd like to apologise enormously as this was never my intention."
The club said that the English Football Association had asked them for Pope's observations regarding the tweet and that the club were conducting an internal investigation in parallel to the FA's inquiries.