‘Ignorant’ Hennessey cleared by FA as he ‘did not know’ what Nazi salute was
Crystal Palace keeper was on a birthday night out for German team-mate Max Meyer when he raised one hand in the air and put the other near his mouth
WAYNE HENNESSEY "did not know" what a Nazi salute was, according to an FA panel that cleared him.
The Crystal Palace goalkeeper was pictured with one arm in the air and one near his mouth on a birthday night out for German team-mate Max Meyer in January.
Hennessey always denied that he was making any kind of gesture, and claimed that he was shouting to the person taking the photo to "get on with it".
The charge was found not proven by a panel, as reported by SunSport last month.
Now the has reported that the reasons given for the decision were that Hennessey, 32, "showed a lamentable degree of ignorance about Adolf Hitler, fascism and the Nazi regime".
The panel continued: "Improbable as that may seem to those of us of an older generation, we do not reject that assertion as untrue."
Mr Hennessey would be well advised to familiarise himself with events which continue to have great significance to those who live in a free country
The FA Panel
"In fact, when cross-examined about this Mr Hennessey displayed a very considerable - one might even say lamentable - degree of ignorance about anything to do with Hitler, Fascism and the Nazi regime.
"Regrettable though it may be that anyone should be unaware of so important a part of our own and world history, we do not feel we should therefore find he was not telling the truth about this.
"All we would say (at the risk of sounding patronising) is that Mr Hennessey would be well advised to familiarise himself with events which continue to have great significance to those who live in a free country."
Hennessey denied any misbehaviour, claiming he had “waved and shouted at the person taking the picture to get on with it" and "put my hand over my mouth to make the sound carry".
He insisted he had not been “making a completely inappropriate type of salute” in the picture “frozen in a moment by the camera” and was backed by Palace boss Roy Hodgson.
But FA disciplinary chiefs moved to charge the goalkeeper and open up an investigation.
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However Hennessey, who has 82 caps for Wales, has been cleared after the charge was "not proven".
The keeper submitted a series of photographs to the FA panel showing him making the same gesture during matches for the Eagles to corroborate his story.
The final wording of the statement reflecting the decision read that "rather than giving a Nazi salute, we think it more likely that Mr Hennessey was, as he says, trying to shout at and to catch the attention of the waiter."
