"Despite my best to encourage Everton FC to ban The Sun, I can't help but feel a sense of betrayal in the knowledge that our club gives cover to journalists of the very same publication that continues to attack and smear the people of Liverpool", he said.
Today, we pay tribute to the 28-year-long demonstration of resilience, courage and unity by the city of Liverpool and remember the men, women and children who went to a football match on 15 April 1989 and never returned home.
The offensive article in question was published this week about Barkley following an incident in a nightclub in Liverpool in which columnist Kelvin MacKenzie called the midfielder "thick" and insinuated that the only people who could a wage similar to footballers in Liverpool were drug dealers.
On top of likening the England worldwide, whose grandfather was born in Nigeria, to a gorilla, MacKenzie described the 23-year-old as "thick" and "one of our dimmest footballers".
The Sun's columnist Kelvin MacKenzie has been suspended from the paper with immediate effect.
Press regulator Ipso said it would investigate how many complaints the article prompted after the Easter break.
It added the views expressed by MacKenzie about the people of Liverpool were "wrong, unfunny and are not the views of the paper".
Liverpool Mayor Joe Anderson said he had reported the article to the police for a "racial slur".
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News UK later announced MacKenzie had been suspended.
His remarks came after a video emerged of Barkley being attacked in a Liverpool bar following Everton's 4-2 win over Leicester City on Sunday. MacKenzie also said he was unaware of Barkley's heritage dubbing the response "beyond parody".
MacKenzie, the paper's former editor, wrote in his weekly column that he was not surprised the midfielder was punched in a nightclub because he was similar to an animal in a zoo. The physique is magnificent but it's the eyes that tell the story.
It said that MacKenzie is now on holiday but that the matter would be fully investigated on his return.
"Then add in the fact he is mixed race!"
Mr Anderson, who said he had given a statement to Merseyside Police, dismissed Mr MacKenzie's defence of his column.
The Sun ran a story on the Hillsborough disaster on 19 April 1989, four days after the disaster with the headline "The Truth", in which it carried accusations from an anonymous South Yorkshire policeman that Liverpool supporters had "picked pockets of victims", "urinated on fearless cops" and that some beat up a policeman giving the "kiss of life".
Past year a jury at new inquests into the disaster ruled that those Liverpool fans who died in the tragedy were "unlawfully killed" and that the action of the fans that day did not in any way contribute to their deaths.
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