AEK Athens midfielder Giorgos Katidis has been banned from the Greek National team after apparently giving a Nazi salute after scoring in his side's 2-1 victory over Veria on Saturday.

The BBC reports:

The Greek football federation called it "a severe provocation" that insulted "all the victims of Nazi bestiality".

The 20-year-old has been handed a life ban from the national team, but he will not join the likes of Di Canio and Christian Abbiati as to being proud of his fascists gesture, as he has denied knowing what the gesture meant on Twitter:

"I am not a fascist and would not have done it if I had known what it meant," Katidis said on his Twitter account.

He insisted he was simply pointing at a team mate in the stands.

According to Yahoo! Sports, he club will decide his future at a board meeting next week, AEK's German manager Ewald Lienen has supported his midfielder, insisting he is apolitical and probably saw the salute "on the internet or somewhere else" without knowing what it meant. Which seems a perfectly good defense for repeating it in front of thousands of people.

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