Sevilla's Kanouté Could Be Punished For Palestine Message

Sevilla striker, Freddy Kanouté, could be fined for revealing a message of support to Palestine after scoring against Deportivo La Coruña yesterday evening...

Freddy Kanouté has never been a player to shy away from sharing his opinion, but his latest message could well earn him a punishment this week.

Following his goal against Deportivo La Coruña the Sevilla striker lifted his top to reveal a t-shirt with the word 'Palestine' written across it, as well as words in Arabic.

Now, the Competition Committee in Spain will have to decide this Friday whether or not he will be punished for the action.

At the time the Malian was shown a yellow card by the referee for 'covering his head with his shirt', but the rules are stricter regarding this subject.

They state that players are not permitted to show any political messages during a match, and this is where Kanouté could get into trouble.

The most common punishment for cases such as this is an economic fine, but due to the fact that the incident was not recorded in the minutes, he could be let off with just the booking.

Kanouté has bought religion into football in the past too, when he refused to wear a Sevilla shirt with the gambling website 888.com across the front, as betting is against the principles of Islam.

Sevilla won the match against Depor 2-1 and will face the same opponents twice in the next week, in the league this weekend, and then in the return Copa Del Rey match.

James Walker-Roberts, Goal.com


Didn't John Paintsil pull a mini-Israel flag out of his sock after a WC '06 game and start waiving it about ?

Did he get punished ?

Paintsil didn't do it during the fighting though did he? He did it to show support for his fans for the Israeli club he was contracted to.

He did get a stern telling off...as it apparently upset the Iran team and others...

There is nothing wrong with what either have done...

Pierre Littbarski wrote:Sevilla striker, Freddy Kanouté, could be fined for revealing a message of support to Palestine after scoring against Deportivo La Coruña yesterday evening...

Freddy Kanouté has never been a player to shy away from sharing his opinion, but his latest message could well earn him a punishment this week.

Following his goal against Deportivo La Coruña the Sevilla striker lifted his top to reveal a t-shirt with the word 'Palestine' written across it, as well as words in Arabic.

Now, the Competition Committee in Spain will have to decide this Friday whether or not he will be punished for the action.

At the time the Malian was shown a yellow card by the referee for 'covering his head with his shirt', but the rules are stricter regarding this subject.

They state that players are not permitted to show any political messages during a match, and this is where Kanouté could get into trouble.

The most common punishment for cases such as this is an economic fine, but due to the fact that the incident was not recorded in the minutes, he could be let off with just the booking.

Kanouté has bought religion into football in the past too, when he refused to wear a Sevilla shirt with the gambling website 888.com across the front, as betting is against the principles of Islam.

Sevilla won the match against Depor 2-1 and will face the same opponents twice in the next week, in the league this weekend, and then in the return Copa Del Rey match.

James Walker-Roberts, Goal.com


Didn't John Paintsil pull a mini-Israel flag out of his sock after a WC '06 game and start waiving it about ?

Did he get punished ?

I know that Mohamed Aboutreika was booked and warned as to future conduct for his 'Solidarity with Gaza' t-shirt during last year's crisis, that occurred during the ACN. I was at that match. He is revered in Gaza, but he insists that it was not a political gesture, but showing humanitarian solidarity which is typical of him - a decent man. Spoke to Hosny Abd-Rabou about it last year and he said same thing; Aboutreika's was humanitarian protest. The Egyptian authorities were not happy as it was Egypt closing the border that caused that crisis. Good for Aboutreika I say.

Ridiculous, I support freespeech, also on the pitch!!! I wished there were more footballers with an opinion. That would make their interviews much more interrested !

Freddy keep on telling them what's on your mind

Ricardo Jol wrote:Ridiculous, I support freespeech, also on the pitch!!! I wished there were more footballers with an opinion. That would make their interviews much more interrested !

Freddy keep on telling them what's on your mind

The reason that Fifa banned the removal of shirts were because of political messages so this is exactly the type of stuff i can imagined a player would get punished for. my hope is that alot of players would do it at the same time so everybody could see how stupid the rule is.

the real question is, what does all this mean for Chevantón?

Glenn Hysén wrote:the real question is, what does all this mean for Chevantón?

Nothing.

It will be interesting to see if anyone signs him in the window though as he can't be anywhere near match fitness yet so they'll be taking a gamble.

Someone posted a comment on Goal.com regarding this issue. Why they didn't fine Kaka when he posted Jesus on his t-shirt?
I know it's a different country and federation, but probably the rules are similar or next to same.

Bullshit

TITO wrote:Someone posted a comment on Goal.com regarding this issue. Why they didn't fine Kaka when he posted Jesus on his t-shirt?
I know it's a different country and federation, but probably the rules are similar or next to same.