Assou-Ekotto gets three-match ban for 'quenelle' tweet

Tottenham defender Benoit Assou-Ekotto has been banned for three games by the FA for tweeting his support for Nicolas Anelka following the striker's contentious "quenelle" celebration during a Premier League match last season.

The FA also fined the Assou-Ekotto £50,000, warned him about his future conduct and ordered him to complete a compulsory education course.

Anelka celebrated scoring a goal for West Brom against West Ham on December 28 by performing what is known in France as a "quenelle" - a gesture made famous by controversial comedian Dieudonne M'bala M'bala, and is regarded as anti-Semitic.

Assou-Ekotto posted in French on Twitter: "I congratulate you on the beautiful quenelle" and was charged alongside Yannick Sagbo in April.

The FA says the comment was "abusive and/or indecent and/or insulting and/or improper" and was a breach of FA rules, although Assou-Ekotto can appeal the decision.

The chairman of the Regulatory Commission, Mr Peter Griffiths QC, said in delivering the decision: "Even though we have found that there was an aggravated breach of FA Rule E3 we are satisfied that when the player sent the tweet on December 28 2013 congratulating Anelka, in his mind he believed he was congratulating Anelka on what he perceived to be an anti-establishment gesture as opposed to one associated with anti-Semitism.

"We are also satisfied of two further factors relevant to his culpability:

1) That he was certainly aware before he sent the tweet that the quenelle gesture was very much associated with Dieudonne; and

2) That he had, by then, acquired at least some knowledge of the controversies surrounding Dieudonne in the Autumn of 2013 and that these had included, rightly or wrongly, allegations concerning anti-Semitism."

Anelka was banned for five matches by the FA following an investigation into the celebration, with West Brom terminating his contract in March. The 35-year-old has since joined Mumbai City in the Indian Super League.