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British Football Association chief rebuked for equating Star of David with swastika

“Things that are going to be highly divisive, and that could be strong religious symbols, it could be the Star of David… it could be a swastika… these are the things we don’t want” on the field, England’s Football Association chief said.

By: AP 

English Football Association chief executive Martin Glenn highlighted the Star of David among the symbols he believes breach soccer laws banning religious and political imagery, a reference that has drawn criticism from the country’s Jewish community.

The Jewish Leadership Council, which is led by a former FA executive, said Glenn’s comment was “offensive and inappropriate” and plans to complain to the sport’s national governing body.

The Star of David, a symbol of Judaism, features on the Israeli flag which appears on national team kits and is displayed in stadiums.

Glenn, a member of the International Football Association, mentioned the Star of David while seeking to explain to reporters why the other slogans, statements or images should still be banned from being displayed on any equipment in the game.

“We have re-written Law 4 of the game so that things like a poppy [commemorating Britain’s war dead] are OK,” Glenn said. “But things that are going to be highly divisive, and that could be strong religious symbols, it could be the Star of David, it could be the hammer and sickle, it could be a swastika, anything like (Zimbabwe’s former president) Robert Mugabe on your shirt, these are the things we don’t want.”

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The swastika was Nazi Germany’s symbol.

‘Ill judged and in poor taste’

Jewish Leadership Council chief executive Simon Johnson, a former FA director of corporate affairs, said the “FA’s examples are ill judged and in poor taste.”

“The Star of David is a Jewish religious symbol of immense importance to Jews worldwide,” Johnson said in a statement. “To put it in the same bracket as the swastika and Robert Mugabe is offensive and inappropriate. We will raise formally with the FA the Jewish community’s deep disappointment with this statement.”

Glenn referenced the right-wing, euroskeptic U.K. Independence Party and the Islamic State group.

“Should we have someone with a UKIP badge, someone with an ISIS badge? That’s why you have to be pretty tough that local, regional, national party organizations cannot use football shirts to represent them,” Glenn said.