The European Jewish Congress has condemned West Bromwich Albion's Nicolas Anelka for his controversial goal celebration at West Ham and wants the French striker to face the same punishment that would be handed down for a Nazi salute.
In scoring the first of his two goals in Saturday's 3-3 draw at Upton Park, the 34-year-old seemingly performed the "quenelle" salute made famous in his homeland by the comedian, Dieudonne.
The gesture has been linked to anti-Semitism in France but Anelka took to Twitter to defend his actions, saying it was "just a special dedication to my comedian friend Dieudonne".
The salute, though, is the subject of fierce national debate and the French sport minister Valerie Fourneyron condemned the gesture as "shocking" and "disgusting".
Dr Moshe Kantor, president of the European Jewish Congress, wants Anelka to be banned. "It is sickening that such a well-known footballer would make such an abusive and hateful gesture in front of tens of thousands of spectators," he said.
"There should be no room for such intolerance and racism in sports and we expect that the English Premier League officials as well as the police will give Anelka the appropriate punishment. Furthermore, we hope that this gesture is banned in all places of Europe where Nazi salutes are banned. Merely inverting the traditional Nazi salute should not allow anti-Semites to spread and display their hate with impunity."
It is understood the Football Association will be looking into the gesture, while anti-racism campaign group Kick It Out has offered its assistance.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article