The Football Association insist Wayne Hennessey has a “lamentable degree of ignorance” after admitting he did not know what a Nazi salute was following his charge of making an offensive gesture.
The charge against the Crystal Palace goalkeeper was found not proven after a picture of the Wales international with his right arm in the air and his left hand above his mouth surfaced on social media.
It was posted by German teammate Max Meyer after Palace’s FA Cup win over Grimsby on January 5.
Hennessey was adamant the resemblance to the Nazi gesture was “absolutely coincidental.”
Two of the three-man panel determined the photograph was “misinterpreted,” while the other insisted the “only plausible explanation” was that Hennessey made the salute.
The 32-year-old explained that he “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”.
The full statement from the panel explained: “Improbable as that may seem to those of us of an older generation, we do not reject that assertion as untrue.
“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.”
