A football club has defended its decision to refund a £5,000 donation from Andrew and Tristan Tate.

FC United of Wrexham has been raising money for its football and futsal teams via a GoFundMe page.

In a post on X, the club said it was “not morally right” to accept the money.

The club, which was set up in 2020, aims to reach the UEFA Futsal Champions League and the second tier of Welsh football in the long term.

A message from the club on the fundraising page says it needs “all the support [it] can get to continue”.

The Tate brothers are facing rape and human trafficking charges in Romania, where they live.

They had previously been in jail, and later under house arrest, since they were detained in December 2022.

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After winning an appeal in August 2023 to be released from house arrest, Tate and his brother can now travel anywhere within Romania but not abroad.

In January last year, Hollywood star and co-owner of Wrexham AFC, Ryan Reynolds, donated £1,600 to FC United of Wrexham for a new kit.

In a video shared on X, Tristan Tate said he was “extremely disappointed”.

“I chip in with £5,000 and I haven’t thought about it since,” Tate added.

He claimed the club had refunded the money after a “public outcry”.

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In a statement, a club spokesperson said the donation had “resulted in our sponsor pulling out of the club”.

They added that many local organisations were “condemning the club” and that people were calling on it “to send the money back”.

“We felt we were in an awful predicament but as the community is our bread and butter, we had to listen,” they added.

“As a club we are regrettably sorry to all people offended and we just want to move on from this event and continue developing futsal in Wrexham.”

The club insists it “asked for retweets, not donations”.

“We are sorry to all those affected and offended, sorry to Tristan for wasting his time and clearly upsetting him on his podcast.”

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