Responding to social media posts
Mainz 05 and Anwar El Ghazi are finally going their separate ways. On Friday, the Bundesliga club announced that the contractual relationship with the 28-year-old winger had been terminated with immediate effect. With this, the Rhenish Hessians are reacting to the repeated anger that the Dutchman with Moroccan roots had caused through posts on social media.
In response to a post about the conflict in the Middle East, Mainz 05 initially released the professional. After the matter seemed to be resolved and El Ghazi was able to credibly show remorse to the club’s management after their statement, he rowed back with another posting. The Mainz company then announced that it would examine legal steps and ended the contractual relationship without initially going into further detail on the matter.
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The Koblenz Public Prosecutor’s Office confirmed to the German Press Agency on Friday that investigations had been started against the 28-year-old. “According to our assessment, there is initial suspicion against the accused of disturbing the public peace by endorsing crimes in conjunction with incitement to hatred by disseminating content,” said the public prosecutor’s office. It is the presumption of innocence. The “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” initially reported.
In mid-October, after the attack on Israel by terrorists on behalf of Hamas on October 7th, El Ghazi wrote in an Instagram post that was then deleted: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” What this means is that Palestine is free from Jordan should extend to the Mediterranean. This, in a sense, denies Israel its right to exist. A suspension initially followed before the professional was allowed to briefly return to the squad after a conversation with the club in which, according to a statement, he distanced himself from his statements.
El Ghazi then surprisingly denied the claim that he had backed away from his contribution. He did not authorize the association’s statement on this. “I do not distance myself from what I said and stand for humanity and on the side of the oppressed until the last day I breathe,” El Ghazi wrote on the social network. According to the club, he was missing from the squad during the week of the cup game at Hertha BSC (0:3) because he was on sick leave. El Ghazi only moved to Rheinhessen in September as a previously out-of-contract professional.
Sports director Christian Heidel announced before the club’s announcement that he would no longer make any statements on the topic. “I think each of you has noticed by now: This has nothing to do with football and sport anymore. This is a highly political issue. This is a legal and labor issue,” he said during a press conference. “This is a case that has never happened before at Mainz 05. I deeply regret it. But nobody at Mainz 05 can do anything about it.”
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