Cleared by a disciplinary panel of performing a Nazi salute, a Premier League soccer player was still criticized for his lack of knowledge about fascism and Adolf Hitler.
Crystal Palace goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey was described by a Football Association commission as having displayed “a very considerable — one might even say lamentable — degree of ignorance about anything to do with” the Nazi regime.
The 32-year-old Hennessey, who is from Wales, had denied giving a Nazi salute because, the commission said, “he said he did not even know what one was.”
“Improbable as that may seem to those of us of an older generation, we do not reject that assertion as untrue,” it said. “All we would say (at the risk of sounding patronizing) is that Mr. Hennessey would be well advised to familiarize himself with events which continue to have great significance to those who live in a free country.”
A photograph posted on Instagram by Hennessey’s teammate at Palace, German midfielder Max Meyer, showed Hennessey with his right arm raised and his left hand under his nose. The photo was taken during a team dinner following Palace’s win over Grimsby in the FA Cup in January. AP
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