Wuerzburg - The Ghanaian
Football Association apologised on Monday after one of its
players waved an Israeli flag to celebrate their 2-0 World Cup
win against the Czech Republic.
Team spokesman Randy Abbey said it was important to point
out that the Ghanaian FA was not trying to take sides in the
conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.
Defender John Paintsil was very popular in Israel where he
plays for Hapoel Tel Aviv and had wanted to acknowledge the
Israeli fans who had travelled to Germany to support him, Abbey
said.
"He is obviously unaware of the implications of what he did.
He's unaware of international politics. We apologise to anybody
who was offended and we promise that it will never happen again.
"He did not act out of malice for the Arab people or in
support of Israel. He was naive... we don't need to punish him."
Paintsil celebrated the two Ghana goals on Saturday by
taking out a small Israeli flag from his sock and waving it
above his head.
Abbey said neither the Ghanaian FA nor Ghana as a country
had a strong political position on the subject and said they
were just in Germany for the World Cup.
"We are not in support or against Israel or the Arab
nations. We are here to do football, we are not here to do
politics."
A spokesman for Fifa had said they had no problem with the
gesture and Israel's Sports Minister Ofir Pines-Paz had been
quoted as praising Paintsil for his actions and saying Ghana had gained many Israeli fans.
Reuters
