The Football Association (FA) has suspended a council member while investigating a social media post that said that “Adolf Hitler would be proud of Benjamin Netanyahu”.
Wasim Haq joined the FA as a “BAME Football Communities Representative” in 2019.
Haq apologised and denied he was antisemitic after his post on X, formerly Twitter, over the weekend referencing the prime minister of Israel amid the ongoing conflict with Hamas.
He was removed from the council of the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) on Monday and is also under investigation by England Golf, where he is an independent director.
“The investigation into Wasim Haq’s conduct is underway and he has been suspended from his council duties pending the outcome of the process,” the FA said in a statement.
Haq has since deleted his post, which said: “Netanyahu has sacrificed his own people to maintain power… whilst #Palestinians are trying to maintain their sanity. Adolf Hitler would be proud of Benjamin Netanyahu.”
Lord Wolfson, who chairs the Football Regulatory Committee for English football’s governing body, confirmed that he was pushing the organisation for a “formal and urgent” investigation.
“Taking down the tweet and apologising is the minimum,” Wolfson said. “That is necessary but it plainly can’t be a sufficient response.
“Using the language of Nazism to attack Jews or Israel is one of the examples of antisemitism by the IHRA [International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance], and the FA adopted the IHRA in January 2021. I’ve asked [the FA chair] Debbie Hewitt for a formal and urgent investigation. It is something to be treated with the utmost seriousness.”
