Anelka Leads FA Into Minefield Of Racial Politics
Updated: 2:22pm UK, Tuesday 21 January 2014
By Paul Kelso, Sports Correspondent
When the Football Association wrote new rules to tackle discrimination, it's a safe bet they did not envisage them being tested by a black French Muslim player accused of anti-Semitism for using a gesture only recognised by a minority in France.
Thanks to Nicolas Anelka, the "quenelle" now has a much wider international audience.
The FA, meanwhile, finds itself trying to navigate a minefield of French racial politics and trying to send a signal as to what is permissible now the Premier League has become a global platform for any player with a cause.
The spur for the rule changes was the racism cases brought against John Terry and Luis Suarez, who received bans of four and eight matches respectively for abusing an opponent.
With the Terry case taking more than a year to conclude, the aim of the new rules was to speed up the process and standardise the punishment, starting with a minimum five-match ban.
By comparison with the Anelka case, they look straightforward.
Many people in France and beyond, including the interior minister and the federal courts, say the quenelle is anti-Semitic.
Look at pictures posted by fans of its inventor - French comedian Dieudonne, who is also Anelka's friend - and there seems little doubt.
It has been performed at Auschwitz, at Holocaust memorials across Europe and even the Tolouse synagogue where three children were shot dead by a gunman.
So at the very least there is a case to answer. The outcome, however, may come down to interpretation.
Anelka has denied racist intention from the outset. He says he was simply showing solidarity with Dieudonne, who has multiple convictions for inciting racial hatred and finds himself banned by the French state.
Dieudonne's lawyers claim he is simply attacking "taboos", though few would describe the Holocaust in such terms.
There is no question that he has support in France.
French-born to Cameroonian parents, his background and provocative stand has made him a lightning rod for a seam of disaffected French youth, many of them drawn from north African and other Muslim immigrant communities, who admire his willingness to take on the establishment.
With the French economy ailing and unemployment rising, it is a rich seam - and Dieudonne's populist instincts, together with his support for the Palestinian cause, have brought him support.
When we visited one of his banned shows in Nantes earlier this month, the regard for Dieudonne among thousands of fans was undeniable.
Asked if he was anti-Semitic, several people told us he was in fact anti-Zionist, not racist.
It is a distinction an FA panel may soon be asked to draw.
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