GERMAN FA: NO PROTEST PUNISHMENT FOR SANCHO

JADON SANCHO will not be punished for his individual protest against racism, after a climbdown from Germany’s FA.

The England star (left) revealed a T-shirt with the message ‘Justice For George’ after scoring the first goal of a hat-trick in Borussia Dortmund’s 6-1 victory over Paderborn at the weekend.

The forward, 20, wanted to throw his weight behind the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement in the wake of George Floyd’s death in police custody in Minneapolis. There have been protests and civil unrest across America and further afield over Floyd’s death.

Fellow Bundesliga stars Achraf Hakimi, Marcus Thuram and Weston Mckennie (above) also made protests, while Sancho was booked for taking his shirt off and threatened with red if he repeated it.

Earlier this week, the DFB refused to rule out sanctioning the four players, because FIFA laws forbid players from displaying political, religious or personal messages during games. But the quartet will not be charged after the DFB performed a U-turn and announced it would allow further on-pitch protests during the rest of the season.

The decision comes after FIFA urged leagues in Europe to consider the “context” when making disciplinary judgements.

DFB control committee chairman Dr Anton Nachreiner said: “These anti-racism campaigns by the players are committed to values for which the DFB also stands. Therefore, no proceedings will be initiated, even with comparable anti-racism campaigns, in the next few weeks.”