A spectator has received a lifetime AFL ban after being accused of performing a Nazi salute at a major finals clash.<\/p>\n
The 39-year-old man was charged following a tip-off over the incident at the Brisbane Lions’ semifinal with Gold Coast Suns.<\/p>\n
A member of the crowd alerted authorities that another spectator was giving a Nazi salute at the Gabba showdown on Saturday night, Queensland Police said.<\/p>\n
It is believed the man allegedly gave the salute during the national anthem and Welcome to Country ceremony, and was removed from the ground before the semifinal began.<\/p>\n
“Officers in attendance at the event quickly responded and took the man into custody,” Queensland Police said in a statement on Monday.<\/p>\n
“The man has also been issued with a lifetime ban from the AFL.”<\/p>\n
The AFL confirmed the man would receive a ban extending across all of its venues.<\/p>\n
“I’ve only just been made aware of that, but the AFL would have the power to do that,” AFL CEO Andrew Dillon said.<\/p>\n
“I would imagine we will follow the lead of the Lions and the Gabba in relation to that so it will apply across all AFL venues.”<\/p>\n
Police believe the man was a “ticket holder” who was at the Gabba to watch the game, but are investigating whether he has any far-right links.<\/p>\n
“We haven’t identified any links at this stage, but we will investigate the full background of this person,” Acting Deputy Commissioner Mark Kelly told reporters.<\/p>\n
“It was a member in the crowd who did a Nazi salute. He has been charged with that offence.”<\/p>\n
The man, from Pratten, was plucked from a 36,628-strong crowd, the biggest Gabba attendance for the AFL season.<\/p>\n
He has been charged with one count of public display of giving a Nazi salute and will appear in Brisbane Magistrates Court on September 29.<\/p>\n
“It is really important that people do report these kinds of behaviours and that is what we are seeking from the community,” Mr Kelly said.<\/p>\n
“If you see something that’s not right, let us know.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A spectator has received a lifetime AFL ban after being accused of performing a Nazi salute at a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":144176,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-144175","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144175\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}