German club loses appeal over dismissal of Dutch-Moroccan player
German football club Mainz has lost its appeal over the unfair dismissal of Dutch-Moroccan player Anwar el-Ghazi and will have to pay him €1.7 million in compensation, according to Hespress on 13th November. The amount represents the salary he should have received for his contract with the club.
Right winger el-Ghazi, 30, now plays for Qatari club Al-Sailiya since September 2025 after leaving Cardiff FC. He was dismissed from Mainz FC in November 2023 over comments he made online in which he supported the Palestinian people enduring Israeli bombardment, using the popular slogan “From the river to the sea”.
He was asked to apologise by Mainz FC but refused, leading to him being suspended and later on sacked from his position, with his contract being terminated. German courts originally made the ruling against Mainz FC in July 2024 after el-Ghazi had filed a complaint for unfair dismissal.
He accused his former club of harassment and of trying to silence him of his pro-Palestine activism. The club has now lost its appeal, with the court confirming that El-Ghazi’s comments fell under freedom of speech, and that his dismissal was illegal.
The footballer has commented on the case online with multiple statements on social media, writing that he would never align himself with those who support people accused of violating international law, and ended his statement with “Viva Palestina!”. He also thanked the German justice system for seeing through the “baseless accusations” against him.
The El-Ghazi case is not isolated; it is part of a wider pattern of repression against pro-Palestinian voices in Germany, with police crackdowns at demonstrations and the deportation of activists without a formal hearing, a move deemed illegal by critics. It also echoes the case of British-Palestinian surgeon Dr Ghassan Abu Sittah, who was denied entry into Germany in April 2024, where he had been invited to speak at a conference on the situation in Gaza.
Hespress, Maghrebi.org
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