Soccer Star Nicolas Anelka Gets 5-Game Ban for Quenelle Goal Celebration
Nicolas Anelka, a French soccer player for a British club, was fined $130,000 and suspended five games for performing the quenelle gesture in a game.
The British Football Association handed down its penalties on Thursday following an investigation by an independent regulatory commission, which ruled that Anelka was guilty of performing an act that was “abusive and/or indecent and/or insulting and/or improper” after scoring against West Ham on Dec. 28. Anelka, a striker for the West Bromwich team, also must attend attend an educational program.
The punishment is suspended pending a seven-day appeals process.
Anelka, the commission determined, had not been deliberately anti-Semitic in making the gesture, nor did he intend “to express or promote anti-Semitism by his use of the quenelle.” But the panel said his breach was an aggravated one because it “included a reference to ethnic origin and/or race and/or religion or belief.”
The player said in December that he performed the quenelle as a gesture to his friend Dieudonne M’bala M’bala, the French comedian who popularized the quasi-Nazi salute. Dieudonne, who has been fined repeatedly for making anti-Semitic remarks, says the quenelle is neither anti-Semitic nor Nazi but merely anti-establishment. France’s interior minister, Manuel Valls, is among many who see the gesture anti-Semitic.
Leaders of British Jewry, including Vivian Wineman, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, welcomed the ruling as justified and fitting.
David Delew, chief executive of the Community Security Trust, the British Jewish community’s watchdog on anti-Semitism, said in a statement, “This verdict sends a strong message to Jewish players and supporters at all levels of the game that the Football Association will act against antisemitic acts if they are reported.”
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30