Berlin (AFP)

The disciplinary committee of the German Football Federation (DFB) will have to determine if the gestures in tribute to George Floyd are punishable, announced Monday the DFB, whose president said he understood the players who expressed their indignation this week-end.

"The regulations of the International Football Association Board adopted by the DFB for the 2019-20 season indicate that the equipment (of the players) must not have any slogan, message, any image of a political, religious or personal character", recalled the DFB in a press release.

"For any infringement, a player or a team will be sanctioned by the organizer of the competition, the national federation or Fifa. It is therefore the disciplinary committee of the DFB which is responsible for dealing with these cases" , continued the German federation.

It is this entity which will "in the next few days" decide on the cases of the players of Schalke 04, Weston McKennie, and Dortmund Jadon Sancho and Achraf Hakimi who expressed their indignation after the death of George Floyd during his arrest in the United States by wearing an armband for the first and by revealing messages on t-shirts for the other two.

On the other hand, the French Mönchengladbach attacker Marcus Thuram who had put a knee on the ground after a goal and thus resumed a gesture popularized by the American football player Colin Kaepernick to denounce the police violence against the black population in the United States, n is not affected by this procedure.

"After his first goal (during Gladbach's victory against the Union Berlin on Sunday), he put his left knee on the ground looking at the ground, a gesture open to interpretation but which is not against the rules", clarified the DFB.

The German Federation, however, has suggested that the three players should escape punishment.

"It is intolerable that people are discriminated against because of the color of their skin, it distresses me when they die because of this. The victims of racism need our solidarity," said the president of the DFB , cited in the press release.

"I have the utmost respect for players who take a stand and show their solidarity, we have responsible players like them and I am proud of them. From a moral point of view, I completely understand what they have done this weekend, "he said.

© 2020 AFP