![\"A](\"http:\/\/img.ghanamma.com\/uploads\/2013\/03\/f09bgio-300x200.jpg\")
<\/p>\nAmazed: Giorgos Katidis\u2019s Brazilian-born team-mate Roger Guerreiro (left) looks at him in astonishment<\/p><\/div>\n
A Greek footballer has been banned for life from playing for his national side after giving what appeared to be a Nazi salute when celebrating scoring a winning goal.<\/strong><\/p>\n AEK Athens midfielder Giorgos Katidis, 20, was handed the ban by the Greek EPO football association following the gesture during his team\u2019s 2-1 league victory over Veria on Saturday 16 March in Athens\u2019 Olympic Stadium.<\/p>\n \u201cThe player\u2019s action to salute to spectators in a Nazi manner is a severe provocation, insults all the victims of Nazi bestiality and injures the deeply pacifist and human character of the game,\u201d EPO said in a statement.<\/p>\n Fans and politicians took to Twitter to condemn Katidis, with the 70th<\/sup>\u00a0anniversary of the beginning of Nazi deportations of Greek Jews to concentration camps falling on Sunday 17 March.<\/p>\n However, the player categorically denied that the gesture signified any far-right allegiance.<\/p>\n \u201cI am not a fascist and would not have done it if I had known what it meant,\u201d Katidis said on his Twitter account.<\/p>\n He claimed he was pointing to injured team-mate Michalis Pavlis, who was sitting in the stands.<\/p>\n AEK\u2019s German coach, Ewald Lienen, supported the former national under 19 captain.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cHe is a young kid who does not have any political ideas. He most likely saw such a salute on the internet or somewhere else and did it without knowing what it means.\u201d<\/p>\n The controversy comes at a time of growing support for the far-right Golden Dawn party in debt-crippled Greece, which has a 26 percent unemployment rate.<\/p>\n The party came third in recent national elections, uses a swastika-like symbol and praises German Nazism.<\/p>\n Ilias Kasidiaris, their second in command, was recently acquitted of taking part in the armed robbery of a student in 2007.<\/p>\n Was it a Nazi salute or not? Watch the video and decide.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Posted On Sunday, 17th March 2013 Amazed: Giorgos Katidis\u2019s Brazilian-born team-mate Roger Guerreiro (left) looks at him in astonishment A Greek footballer has been banned for life from playing for his national side after giving what appeared to be a Nazi salute when celebrating scoring a winning goal. AEK Athens midfielder Giorgos Katidis, 20, was handed the ban by the Greek EPO football association following the gesture during his team\u2019s 2-1 league victory over Veria on Saturday 16 March in Athens\u2019 Olympic Stadium…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46870\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2013\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}