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Nicolas Anelka: FA could appeal and ask for increase in quenelle ban Nicolas Anelka: FA could appeal and ask for increase in quenelle ban
(about 4 hours later)
The Football Association could push for Nicolas Anelka to serve more than a five-match ban for a racially aggravated goal celebration by appealing against its own disciplinary panel's verdict. The dispute over Nicolas Anelka's quenelle gesture could escalate after the Football Association revealed it is considering appealing against the leniency of the five-match ban meted out to the striker this week.
On Wednesday, the West Bromwich Albion striker received the minimum FA racism ban for performing a gesture known in France as a quenelle and which has been called an inverted Nazi salute. That punishment was delivered by an independent regulatory commission that was tasked with investigating the gesture that Anelka made after scoring for West Bromwich Albion against West Ham on 28 December. The gesture was not widely known in England before Anelka made it but its meaning is subject of intense debate in France, where it was popularised by Dieudonné M'bala M'Bala, a comedian who has several convictions on antisemitism charges and is barred from entering the United Kingdom.
Although the gesture was found to be racist, the FA's independent commission backed Anelka's insistence that he was not being intentionally antisemitic. Anelka maintains that he made the gesture to show his friendship with Dieudonné and the commission accepted that the player is not antisemitic but still banned him for an aggravated offence. The detailed reason for that decision will be issued in writing on Monday, whereupon the FA will decide whether to seek a more severe sentence. Anelka is also awaiting the explanation before deciding whether he will appeal for the five-match ban to be reduced or overturned.
The FA's general secretary, Alex Horne, said the governing body will not receive the written reasons until Monday "at which point it's open to appeal from either our side or from Nicolas Anelka's side". "We are all waiting until Monday to see what the judgment was," says the FA chairman Greg Dyke "It is a strange situation where the decision is announced but we don't know the reasons so we have to wait for those. This is an evidence-based inquiry and what did Mr Anelka say and what was the basis for the decision – we will see that on Monday. Any appeal will be decided by others on Monday, not by me. It is a possibility. We will look at the whole thing again once this one has been done."
Until then Horne said he could not comment on "whether five matches is enough". Dyke admitted that the unfamiliarity of the quenelle in England makes this an especially complex case. "This was not an easy case, because for most people in England that sign meant nothing. It's only what it meant in France that became important, so we will look at the judgment and will ask people do we think that's fair or that we should change anything as a result of that."
Alex Horne, the FA general secretary, said: "This was a gesture we haven't seen before in English football. The reality is we haven't got the written reasons yet, we will get those on Monday at which point it is open to appeal from either our side or Nicolas Anelka's side so I can't comment personally as to whether five matches are enough."
Dyke was pleased, at least, that the judgment demonstrated the FA's determination to deter displays of discrimination. "It makes it clear that the FA is not prepared to tolerate things that could be of a racist nature but we have to see what the decision was."