FA Council member apologises after claiming ‘Hitler would be proud of Israel’s prime minister’
The Football Association and Lawn Tennis Association have told Sky News they have opened investigations into a member of their top decision-making bodies after he said: “Adolf Hitler would be proud of Benjamin Netanyahu.”
Wasim Haq, who was appointed by the FA and LTA Councils to speak for diverse communities and inclusion, apologised for causing offence and deleted a post on social media platform X (formerly Twitter) after the governing bodies were contacted by Sky News about the comments on Israel’s war with Hamas.
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Lord Wolfson KC, barrister and chair of the FA’s Football Regulatory Authority, indicated to Sky News that the post would go against the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance code, which the FA adopted and warns against comparing contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.
Writing on X, Mr Haq said of the Israeli prime minister on Saturday: “Netanyahu has sacrificed his own people to maintain power…whilst #Palestinians are trying to maintain their sanity. Adolf Hitler would be proud of Benjamin Netanyahu.”
More than three hours after he deleted the post, Mr Haq said on X: “It has been brought to my attention that a tweet I published yesterday has caused offence.
“I have deleted the tweet and apologise unreservedly to anyone that has felt offended.”
In response to criticism, Mr Haq posted on Sunday: “My tweet was directly in relation to comparing two individuals who in my eyes have caused contemporary and historical irreparable harm to victimised communities on both sides of this tragic conflict.
“I am not and never have been the kind of person that targets anyone or any community over any difference ever.
“I am NOT antisemitic and have never been accused of being so. I unreservedly apologise if this was taken in any other way.”
There was no immediate response from an attempt to contact Mr Haq, the FA council member representing black, Asian and minority ethnic communities.
The FA and LTA are exploring if action against Mr Haq is necessary.
The FA told Sky News: “Wasim Haq has deleted the tweet and apologised for causing offence. We are aware of the content of the tweet – it is unacceptable, highly offensive, and we are investigating.”
Since 2021, Mr Haq has been in a role at the governing body for British tennis as a council member appointed to drive inclusion and diversity.
The LTA told Sky News: “We are investigating this matter and for the avoidance of doubt the LTA disassociates itself from this tweet.”
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu Pic: AP
The investigations were launched after calls by Lord Wolfson, who told Sky News that the matter should be “treated with the utmost seriousness”.
“Taking down the tweet and apologising is the minimum. That is necessary but it plainly can’t be a sufficient response,” he said.
“Using the language of Nazism to attack Jewish or Israel is one of the examples of antisemitism by the IHRA (International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance), and the FA adopted the IHRA in January 2021.
“I’ve asked (FA chair) Debbie Hewitt for a formal and urgent investigation.”
The FA’s response to the war was criticised by Jewish and Israeli groups following its decision against lighting up the Wembley arch in the colours of the Israeli flag after the Hamas massacres on 7 October.
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The FA held a silence before England’s match against Australia last month “to remember the innocent victims of the devastating events in Israel and Palestine”.
Mr Haq, who works in executive recruitment as managing partner at First Team Partners, joined the FA Council as a “BAME Football Communities Representative” in January 2019.
A judo Olympian has said her family is “devastated” after the discovery of body in the search for her missing brother.
Lubjana Piovesana, 28, appealed for help to find her younger sibling, Luis, 26, on Saturday. He had not been seen since the early hours of Friday morning.
A body was found in the River Frome near Napier Road in Eastville, Bristol, at around 6pm today, Avon and Somerset Police said.
Formal identification is yet to take place, the force added.
In a post on Instagram, Ms Piovesana wrote: “Hello everyone, Luis has been found.
“We are completely devastated but he has passed away.
“I am grateful for everyone’s support. And I am so sorry this happened.
“Luis was my little brother and loved by everyone. I wish he could have seen the love from everyone. He will be remembered by us all.”
The post was signed off with a dove emoji.
Luis Piovesana did not have any money or his mobile phone with him when he went missing, police said. Pics: Avon & Somerset Police
Mr Piovesana was last seen at around 3am on Friday at the Eastgate retail park, which is less than a 10-minute walk away from where the body was found.
He had travelled there by taxi from a venue in Little Ann Street, St Jude’s, a 10-minute drive away.
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The 26-year-old’s family spent the weekend searching for him, and asked people to check their sheds and gardens.
His partner, Laurin Bohler, said loved ones had travelled from Birmingham to help.
Mounted officers and police drones were also involved in the investigation.
Ms Piovesana competed for Team GB before switching to the Austrian team, and defeated British competitor Lucy Renshall in the women’s -63kg judo event at the Paris Olympics last year.
A man has been jailed for life for murdering his son’s girlfriend after she returned home from the school run.
Officers from Dyfed-Powys Police were called to an address on Bigyn Road in Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, on 5 July last year.
Sophie Evans, 30, had sustained 72 separate injuries on the outside of the body, “all but three of them new injuries”.
Richard Jones, who is now 50, believed he was “being taken advantage of financially” by Ms Evans and his son, with whom she was in a relationship.
While the purpose of Jones’s visit was “purely normal”, he confronted her on that morning about his suspicions and Ms Evans’s reaction was such that Jones “lost [his] temper”.
He subjected Ms Evans to “gross violence” before ultimately strangling her and leaving the property to run errands, including ordering a new bank card and buying pastries from a bakery.
Richard Jones. Pic: Dyfed-Powys Police
‘Last time on their school run’
During sentencing on Monday, the defendant kept his head bowed for most of the hearing.
He will have to serve at least 20 years behind bars before he can be considered for release by the parole board.
Swansea Crown Court heard Ms Evans was the mother of two young children.
Passing his sentence, Judge Geraint Walters said Ms Evans “had just taken her two children for the last time on their school run” prior to the attack.
“She wasn’t to know that when she parted company with them that morning,” he added.
The court heard the Jones believed he was being defrauded by Ms Evans and his son.
“There is clear evidence, that in the days leading up to this, that you had begun harbouring thoughts that Sophie Evans and your own son were in fact financially scamming you,” he said.
“What precisely brought about that view is difficult to determine.”
Judge Walters said Jones “lost [his] temper when [he] didn’t get the answer that [he] thought [he] deserved”.
He added that, having lost his temper, the defendant “subjected [Ms Evans] to gross violence over a period of time, before you ultimately extinguished her life by strangulation”.
The court was told in evidence that at the time of the attack, Ms Evans was wearing only a bath towel.
‘The rock of our family’
In a victim personal statement, Ms Evans’s sister Kerry Quinlan told the court she was “the rock of our family”.
She said Ms Evans was taken from them in a “senseless and cruel act”.
“Words cannot express fully how much of a loss this has been to her children,” she added.
“When they cry themselves to sleep wanting their mum, she isn’t there and never will be.”
Ms Quinlan added that Jones had “taken everything from us, all in the most despicable way possible”.
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Ms Evans’s partner at the time, and the defendant’s son, Jamie Davies, said in a victim personal statement, read on his behalf, that they had both “trusted” Jones, and that Ms Evans had even been planning the defendant’s 50th birthday.
“The thought of having to live my life without Sophie causes me extreme pain and heartache,” he added.
Prosecuting, Michael Jones KC said the offence was aggravated by the defendant’s previous convictions and the fact Ms Evans was murdered in her home.
In mitigation, David Elias KC said there was a “lack of premeditation”.
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