LONDON (AP) — West Bromwich Albion is losing its main sponsor because of Nicolas Anelka’s goal celebration with a gesture considered anti-Semitic.
The Premier League club is standing by the former France striker’s defense that the gesture, which is known in France as a “quenelle,” is not anti-Semitic.
But property website Zoopla, whose name appears on West Brom’s jerseys, says it will end that sponsorship at the end of the season after “reviewing its position over the past few weeks in light of the actions of striker Nicolas Anelka.”
The English Football Association has spent almost a month studying Anelka’s gesture, which involves pointing one straightened arm downward while touching the shoulder with the opposite hand. It was popularized by a French comic whose performances are regarded as anti-Semitic.
