English Soccer Exec Apologizes for Equating Star of David with Nazi Swastika

The CEO of Britain’s Football Association has apologized for saying that the Star of David, is just as “divisive” as the Nazi swastika and Soviet Hammer and Sickle.

Football Association Chief Executive Martin Glenn was telling reporters that the FA was looking to keep “highly divisive” symbols out of the game, during a discussion of a player who was reprimanded for wearing a yellow ribbon to support political prisoners in Catalonia, USA Today reported.

“We have re-written Law 4 of the game so that things like a poppy are OK,” Glenn told reporters over the weekend. “But things that are going to be highly divisive, and that could be strong religious symbols, it could be the Star of David, it could be the hammer and sickle, it could be a swastika, anything like (former Zimbabwe president) Robert Mugabe on your shirt, these are the things we don’t want.”

But, by Monday, Glenn was apologizing for lumping the Jewish religious symbol with that of mass murderers such as the Nazis and the Soviet communists.

“I would like to apologize for any offense caused by the examples I gave when referring to political and religious symbols in football, specifically in reference to the Star of David, which is a hugely important symbol to Jewish people all over the world,” Glenn wrote in a statement released on March 5.

Simon Johnson, CEO of the Jewish Leadership Council, accepted Glenn’s apology saying he was glad the faux-pas was “dealt with swiftly:”

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.