FA ban Anelka for 5 games over quenelle gesture
LONDON - The English Football Association has banned Nicolas Anelka for five games after finding the West Bromwich Albion striker guilty of causing racial offense with a goal celebration deemed anti-Semitic.
Anelka had denied that his use of the gesture, which is known in France as a "quenelle" and has been described as an "inverted Nazi salute," was anti-Semitic in a Premier League match in December.
But an FA disciplinary panel, which heard the case this week, decided the former France international should miss five games and be fined 80,000 pounds ($133,000). (AP)
