DUTCH FOX SPORTS on Monday suspended former Netherlands star Marco van Basten for a week as an analyst for saying “Sieg Heil” on air as a “joke of bad taste.”
The broadcaster said it would pay the former Dutch great’s salary for the week to the Dutch Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide studies.
Van Basten, 55, made the comment on Fox Sports’ pay-to-view channel, after an interview ahead of the Eredivisie clash between Ajax and Heracles.
His words could be heard in the studio moments after TV presenter Hans Kraay’s interview in German with Heracles’ German manager Frank Wormuth.
“Not too pretty, sieg heil, pfannkuchen (pancake),” Van Basten said, using the Nazi German salute.
“It was not my intention at all to shock people. I only wanted to ‘explain’ Hans’ German,” a contrite Van Basten said.
Fox said Van Basten’s pay for the week “will be paid to the Netherlands Institute for War Documentation, in order to promote knowledge of the history of the Second World War.”
