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Giorgos Katidis was yesterday banned for life from playing for Greece for having given a Nazi salute during a game. |
The Greek football federation unanimously decided the sanction following an extraordinary general meeting yesterday. The 20-year-old midfielder scored the winning goal in AEK Athens’s 2-1 Super League victory over Veria on Saturday but celebrated it in controversial fashion in front of spectators at the Olympic Stadium.
“The action by the player to salute spectators with a Nazi salute defies common sense, profoundly shows disrespect to all the victims of Nazi atrocities and injures the peaceful and deeply human character of football. The Greek football federation condemns unequivocally and categorically such actions,” an announcement by the federation said.
The federation said that it will take all appropriate steps “to preserve the peaceful nature of football and to promote the values of solidarity, co-operation and respect that it professes.”
After the match he wrote on his Twitter site: “I am not a fascist and I would not have done it if I had known what it means. I know the consequences and I would never have done it.”