The Hague (AFP)

Fox Sports suspended for a week former Dutch football star Marco van Basten, who delivered a Nazi salute on air during a "joke of bad taste," said Monday the Dutch television channel.

The former footballer, now a television commentator, quickly apologized on Saturday after saying "sieg Heil" on the air, intended to make fun of the German of one of his colleagues.

"With a bad joke at the wrong time," Marco van Basten "made an error last Saturday," Fox Sports said in a statement on Monday.

"What happened is stupid and inappropriate and Fox Sports is distancing itself from what has been said," continued the channel, which "decided to do without Marco van Basten's services this week as 'analyst".

The remuneration of the footballer for his presence on the set of a weekly program on the meetings of the Eredivisie Championship will be paid to the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation (NIOD), "in order to promote knowledge of the history of the Second World War. World War, "the channel said.

The former triple Ballon d'Or will resume its functions on television on Saturday, September 7th.

While a reporter from the Dutch channel Fox Sports, Hans Kraay, on Saturday broadcast the antenna after interviewing German coach Frank Wormuth, at half-time Ajax Amsterdam-Heracles Almelo (4-1), Van Basten , who did not appear in the picture at that time, dropped: "not terrible, sieg Heil".

"It was not my intention to shock, I just wanted to explain + German to Hans," said the former Dutch striker, obviously contrite, following the outcry provoked by his comments on Twitter. Fox Sports also had an apology on Saturday.

Van Basten's blunder was all the more unfortunate as Dutch clubs have recently launched a series of measures to combat racism. The previous weekend, racist songs led to the temporary halt of a match between two Dutch second division clubs.

© 2019 AFP