West Bromwich Albion striker Nicolas Anelka has agreed to a request from club not to repeat the salute, following a wave of criticism. (AFP)
West Bromwich Albion striker Nicolas Anelka faces a lengthy ban after being charged by the Football Association yesterday over an allegedly anti-Semitic salute.
The 34-year-old French striker performed the ‘quenelle’ salute, putting one arm across his chest and straightening the other, during West Brom’s 3-3 draw at West Ham United in the Premier League last month.
The FA said that Anelka had made a gesture that was “abusive and/or indecent and/or insulting and/or improper” and included “a reference to ethnic origin and/or race and/or religion or belief”.
Anelka has until 1800 GMT tomorrow to respond to the charge and if found guilty he faces a minimum five-game suspension, under new anti-discrimination measures introduced by the FA in May last year. An independent three-person commission will be appointed to deal with the case, which will be decided by a disciplinary hearing if Anelka contests the charge.
West Brom said in a statement that Anelka was “considering his options” after receiving a 34-page document from the FA explaining the charges facing him. The club also underlined that Anelka “remains available for first-team selection until the FA’s disciplinary process has reached its conclusion”.
The ‘quenelle’, popularised by French comedian Dieudonne M’bala M’bala, has been described by critics in France as an inverted Nazi salute, but Anelka has insisted that it was merely “a dedication” to the comic. He also took to Twitter to affirm that he was “neither anti-Semite nor racist”, but stopped short of issuing an apology. M’bala M’bala, better known simply as Dieudonne, has been prosecuted for anti-Semitism in France, but he says the salute is merely an anti-establishment gesture. The FA’s decision to charge Anelka, after a three-and-a-half-week investigation, comes a day after West Brom’s shirt sponsors, property website Zoopla, decided to end their association with the club.
“In recent weeks we have decided to re-evaluate this sponsorship and as a result we will focus our attention on other marketing activities from the end of the season,” said Lawrence Hall, Zoopla’s head of communications. The deal was reportedly worth £3 million ($4.9 million, 3.6 million euros) over two years, but West Brom said that they had already been planning to find a new sponsor.
Anelka, a former France international, has continued to appear for the club despite the furore and played for 77 minutes in his side’s 1-1 draw with Everton on Monday. Speaking after the game, West Brom’s new Spanish coach, Pepe Mel, said that he had no qualms about continuing to select Anelka. “I don’t know. I am only head coach,” Mel told Sky Sports when asked about the affair. “He is a good personality. He needs a goal and he will work for me very well.”
Anelka thanked West Brom and the club’s fans for their support after the game, writing on Twitter: “Big thanks to @WBAofficial for the support on this story & also to the West Bromwich fans who were magnificent tonight.”
Wave of criticism
Anelka has agreed to a request from West Brom not to repeat the salute, following a wave of criticism in the immediate aftermath of the incident. British anti-racism organisation Kick It Out, meanwhile, has criticised the FA for the time it has taken to bring the affair to a conclusion.
Jewish pressure groups based in Britain have called for Anelka to be hit with a lengthy suspension, but he has received support from Everton’s Belgian striker Romelu Lukaku, who is a Kick It Out ambassador.
Speaking before details of the FA charge were announced, Lukaku gave a video interview to the Everton website in which he said: “I don’t think he should be banned for that. He was just supporting a comedian in France.”
The 20-year-old added: “We don’t have to make such a big deal about it.”
However, the video was subsequently removed, with an Everton spokesman telling Britain’s Press Association: “It is the player’s opinion and not the opinion held by the football club.”
Anelka, who converted to Islam in 2004, has had a chequered playing career, having notably been sent home from the 2010 World Cup in South Africa after clashing with France coach Raymond Domenech.
Ince fired as Blackpool manager
London: Former England midfielder Paul Ince was sacked as manager of Blackpool yesterday after less than a year in charge of the Championship club. Ince, 46, was appointed last February and briefly took Blackpool to the top of England’s second tier this season after they won five of their first six games.
But they have lost eight of their last nine and sunk to 14th in the table as well as being knocked out of the FA Cup at the first hurdle by Bolton Wanderers. Ince’s departure was confirmed on the club’s website (www.blackpoolfc.Couk) and his assistants Alex Rae and Steve Thompson are also leaving. Midfielder Barry Ferguson will take charge of training when the players return tomorrow, the club said in a statement.
Ince, whose son Tom plays for the club, was given a five-match stadium ban by the English FA in October for violence towards a match official.
He won only 12 out of 42 games at Blackpool who are now looking for their fourth full-time manager since being relegated after one season in the Premier League in 2010-11.
Ince, who represented England 53 times between 1992 and 2000, played for West Ham United, Manchester United, Inter Milan and Liverpool during a distinguished career.
He has also managed Macclesfield Town, MK Dons, Blackburn Rovers and Notts County.
S Africa president defends team after minister criticism
South Africa’s president Jacob Zuma has rallied to the defence of the national football team after the country’s sports minister called them “useless” and a “bunch of losers”.
Bafana Bafana were booted out in the first round of the 2014 African Nations Championship (CHAN) after they lost 3-1 to Nigeria in Cape Town, a fourth tournament failure in 12 months for beleaguered coach Gordon Igesund.
That led to a furious outburst from sports minister Fikile Mbalula, calling on the country to “forget this generation of players” and build a new team. However, Zuma, who has clashed with Mbalula in the past after the latter openly backed deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe in the African National Congress’s leadership race in 2012, disagreed with his minister. “We’re well aware that some people are criticising the way the national team played against Nigeria. Some want the team disbanded. It has improved greatly and needs our support,” Zuma said on local radio station SAFM later that day.
“The current coach knows what he’s doing. He’s great at his job. The fact that the team lost, that doesn’t mean anything as other teams lost as well.” The CHAN tournament is a competition for quasi-national teams, made up of home-based players only, which South Africa is hosting. The issue of the performance of the national team in what is a low-level Confederation of African Football competition has taken a political slant in an election year in South Africa.