French striker Anelka's disciplinary hearing held at undisclosed location
French footballer Nicolas Anelka's disciplinary hearing over his controversial 'quenelle' gesture starts on Tuesday at an undisclosed location, according to England's governing Football Association
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Striker Anelka, now with English Premier League side West Bromwich Albion, faces a minimum five-match ban for making a gesture condemned in France as anti-Semitic, after scoring the first of his two goals in a 3-3 draw against West Ham on December 28.
The 34-year-old denies the gesture was anti-Semitic and requested a personal hearing.
Anelka was charged by England's FA last month with an aggravated offence after making a gesture that was judged to be "abusive and/or indecent and/or insulting and/or improper".
The aggravated element was that it included "a reference to ethnic origin and/or race and/or religion or belief".
The quenelle, which resembles an inverted Nazi salute was invented by French performer Dieudonne M'bala M'bala, a friend of Anelka's, who has been prosecuted in France for various racial offences.
Anelka has maintained his goal celebration was an anti-establishment gesture in support of Dieudonne and that he is neither racist nor anti-Semitic.
Last month, Dieudonne was banned from entering the UK after Britain's interior ministry made him the subject of an exclusion order.
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