Nicolas Anelka was charged with an aggravated breach of FA rules yesterday because of his quenelle gesture against West Ham on December 28th.
Anelka has responded to the charge with a post on his Twitter account last night. He posted a link to a video which, as French football correspondent Tom Williams explains below was of a representative of a Jewish association saying that the gesture is only anti-semitic if performed on a Jewish site.
Anelka just posted link to a video in which head of Jewish association CRIF says quenelle is only anti-Semitic if performed at Jewish site. — Tom Williams (@tomwfootball) January 21, 2014
He has now followed that up with a post on his Facebook page, where he questions the legitimacy of the expert which the FA used in the investigation. He also says that he is not anti-semitic or racist.
:
The English football Federation hired an expert to rule on the meaning of my quenelle ... The latter concluded that my gesture had an antisemitic connotation, which led to my indictment by the FA. It would have been legitimate had the expert been French, living in France, and that could have an exact knowledge of my gesture. What better expert than Mr Cukierman, president of CRIF (Conseil Représentatif France Jewish Institutions), which explains it very clearly that my quenelle could not be considered to be antisemitic! He also explained in detail when this gesture could have such a connotation. I therefore ask the English federation to kindly remove the charges of which I'm accused. And I repeat, I am neither antisemitic nor racist.
Anelka has until 6pm on Thursday to appeal the charge.
