Everton Ban 'The Sun' from Premises Following Ross Barkley Article

Everton have banned The Sun newspaper from their premises after the publication included a controversial article about Ross Barkley in their Friday edition.

The Toffees confirmed the decision had been made with a post on their official Twitter feed on Saturday:

The article in question was penned by the paper's former editor, Kelvin MacKenzie, in which he compared Barkley, whose grandfather was born in Nigeria, to a "gorilla" and made derogatory marks about the city of Liverpool. MacKenzie has since been suspended.

MacKenzie's story was in reference to an attack on Barkley in a Liverpool bar in the early hours of Monday morning, as the England international was the victim of what his lawyer described as an "unprovoked attack."

Footage of the incident released showed the 23-year-old in conversation with another man before he was struck twice.

Michael Steele/Getty Images

MacKenzie suggested that Barkley is "one of our dimmest footballers" in the report and also labelled him "thick." The piece pondered whether the midfielder may "represent the missing link between man and beast" and said men in Liverpool earning a similar amount to him are "drug dealers."

Following the report, the mayor of Liverpool, Joe Anderson, called on the club to follow Liverpool Football Club in banning the newspaper:

The decision to banish the publication from the premises was praised by plenty on social media, including former England international Stan Collymore:

Meanwhile, Oliver Holt of the Daily Mail was unsure whether the correct course of action had been taken:

The decision from the Toffees comes on the 28th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster, which saw 96 Liverpool supporters lose their lives at an FA Cup semi-final.

Earlier in the day, Everton paid their respects to those who were killed:

It's a disaster that MacKenzie and The Sun are infamously tied to. The then-editor of The Sun controversially ran with a front page headlined as "The Truth" four days after the disaster, claiming Liverpool supporters "picked pockets of victims" and "urinated on brave cops," and that some beat up a policeman.

Those allegations have since been proved wrong, with a jury ruling in April 2016 that the 96 Liverpool supporters were not to blame for the disaster and were victims of unlawful killing.