Anelka gets five match ban for quenelle gesture
WEST Brom striker Nicolas Anelka was yesterday banned for five matches for making the controversial “quenelle” gesture, though the Football Association accepted his argument that he was not anti-Semitic.
Former Chelsea and Arsenal start Anelka, 34, who was also fined £80,000, said he would wait for the full judgement before deciding whether to appeal. The ban is suspended until the outcome of any appeal or the Frenchman accepts the punishment. West Brom have suspended him with immediate effect.
Five matches is the minimum ban the panel could have imposed under new FA rules this season.
Anelka argued that the gesture, made after he scored against West Ham in December, was one of solidarity for the French comic Dieudonne, who has made the quenelle his trademark.
Critics have accused Dieudonne, who is banned from Britain, of anti-Semitism and likened the quenelle to a Nazi salute. Anelka has argued it is merely anti-establishment, and the FA panel accepted he was not “an anti-Semite or that he intended to express or promote anti-Semitism”.