Notts County’s owner, Alan Hardy, is facing a Football Association investigation after he apologised for posting an intimate picture on Twitter on Sunday morning.

An avid user of the social media site, Hardy, who bought the club in 2017 and is known as ‘Big Alan’, was attempting to show what he described as “the fickle side of football fans” and posted two screenshots of tweets from the same fan. The first one wished him a merry Christmas and the other said he had ruined the club, although one of the screenshots appears to show the businessman’s picture gallery from his phone, which featured a picture of his penis.

He quickly deleted the tweet and later apologised: “This morning an inappropriate photo appeared in one of my tweets. This was clearly an honest mistake as a result of my camera roll being included in a screenshot. I tried to rectify the error by deleting the tweet as soon as I noticed and I apologise for any offence caused.”

It is understood that the FA will contact Hardy to ask for his observations over the incident, with the 54-year-old claiming he would be deleting his Twitter account, although he had yet to do so on Sunday evening. He later announced he has put the League Two club up for sale after “considerable soul-searching”.

“Thank you to everyone who continues to support me through what has been a very difficult time. Later this evening I will be deleting my account as I feel this is in the best interests of the football club, my family and myself,” Hardy added.

This morning an inappropriate photo appeared in one of my tweets. This was clearly an honest mistake as a result of my camera roll being included in a screenshot. I tried to rectify the error by deleting the tweet as soon as I noticed and I apologise for any offence caused. — Alan Hardy (@Bigalanh5) January 27, 2019

“I have always seen Twitter as a way of engaging with supporters and monitoring ways we can improve as a club. I do, however, accept I have made mistakes on social media and feel now is the time to leave for good.

“Thank you once again to everyone who is sticking by us. I will continue to communicate with you all via official club channels. Alan.”