Holland’s Marco van Basten, one of the greatest players of the 20th century, has been removed from FIFA 20 after being caught on camera making what he called a Nazi “joke”.
Marco van Basten said ‘Sieg Heil’ after an interview with German coach Frank Wormuth of Heracles. Van Basten already apologized for his ‘joke’. #football #eredivisie pic.twitter.com/Pb9LhiWe9j
— Tijani Goullet AD (@TijaniGoulletAD) November 23, 2019
van Basten works as a commentator for Fox in the Netherlands, and was in the booth following a game in the Dutch league on Saturday between Ajax and Heracles Almelo. After touchline presenter Hans Kraay had interviewed Heracles manager Frank Wormuth, van Basten can be heard mocking Kraay’s attempts at speaking German (Wormuth is a German currently coaching in Holland) before saying “Seig Heil”.
He has since apologised, saying that he didn’t want to make an offensive remark, just “ridicule” his co-presenters foreign language skills (it’s important to note that the Dutch and Germans have one hell of a rivalry when it comes to football).
That hasn’t stopped EA Sports from suspending van Basten from FIFA 20, where he was available as one of the game’s legendary players.
The suspension only applies to van Basten’s availability. Anyone who already has the player in their team can continue to use him.
van Basten has also been suspended from his commentary duties, with his wages for this week instead donated to the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation.
So he tried ridiculing the other fellas lack of foreign language skills with an even greater lack of foreign language skills?
Sounds like you’re describing the internet here.
Ah, the old ‘say something massively offensive then claim you didn’t want to be offensive’ gambit…
It’s not like he went with something debateable either, like there’s just no middle ground here where one might be able to argue “Well, a lot of people wouldn’t consider that offensive.” Man, he really just took that moment and drove himself straight off the cliff with it.