Port Vale forward Tom Pope has apologised for tweeting a Rothschild conspiracy theory, hours after he scored in his side's FA Cup defeat at Manchester City.

Mr Pope released a statement after he was condemned for tweeting: "We invade Iran then Cuba then North Korea then the Rothschild’s [sic] are crowned champions of every bank on the planet - the end".

Arguing over the original tweet, he later suggested the Rothschild family's ownership of banks was "fact".

In his apology, he said: “I was unaware of any link between the Rothchild [sic] family and the Jewish community.

"If I have caused offence to anyone, I'd like to apologise enormously as this was never my intention."

He tweeted the "Rothschild’s" message, which he later deleted, in response to a request to predict the end of a notional Third World War.

The Press Association reported that it understood the FA "is looking into the matter" and could launch an investigation.

When warned by other Twitter users that his comments could be seen as racist, Mr Pope responded: "I mentioned them owning the banks which is fact and now I’m facing all this".

He added in another: "How is it racist?? Seriously is someone out to destroy me or what?"

One user told him: "Because Rothschild conspiracies have been used throughout history as a way of smearing the Jewish community and have quite rightly been identified as anti-Semitic.

"This myth in particular is one of the most commonly used and has been debunked thousands of times."