• West Brom player calls on FA to drop its charges
• Striker has until 6pm on Thursday to respond
• Marina Hyde on Anelka and the quenelle
• How West Brom have betrayed their past

Nicolas Anelka has posted a call on his Facebook site for the Football Association to drop its charges over the quenelle, insisting he is neither racist nor antisemitic.

The message, which he put up in French, roughly translates as:

“The English football Federation hired an expert to rule on the meaning of my quenelle … The latter concluded that my gesture had an antisemitic connotation, which led to my indictment by the FA.

“It would have been legitimate had the expert been French, living in France, and that could have an exact knowledge of my gesture.

“What better expert than Mr Cukierman, president of CRIF (Conseil Représentatif France Jewish Institutions), which explains it very clearly that my quenelle could not be considered to be antisemitic!

“He also explained in detail when this gesture could have such a connotation.

“I therefore ask the English federation to kindly remove the charges of which I’m accused. And I repeat, I am neither antisemitic nor racist.”

On Tuesday night Anelka had tweeted a link to a video on the website of Le Figaro in which Cukierman said the quenelle was only antisiemitic if performed in front of a Jewish institution such as a synagogue.

That came in the wake of the FA charges, which meant the West Brom striker could be facing a substantial ban after being charged with making a gesture that was “abusive and/or indecent and/or insulting and/or improper”.

The FA took guidance an unnamed expert before concluding that Anelka’s goal celebration at West Ham United on 28 December ought to be a matter for disciplinary action. Anelka has claimed his quenelle is an anti-establishment gesture in support of the French comedian Dieudonné M’bala M’bala, who is banned from public appearances in France.

If the case is proved, a minimum five-game ban would automatically follow because of the new FA guidelines surrounding Rule E3, when the alleged offence is aggravated by “a reference to ethnic origin and/or race and/or religion or belief”.

Anelka has until 6pm on Thursday to respond to the charge, although there is a chance he might ask for an extension to that deadline.

Dieudonné has been prosecuted by the French government for insulting the memory of Holocaust victims, and Anelka’s quenelle has already led to West Brom’s shirt sponsors, Zoopla, co-owned by the Jewish businessman Alex Chesterman, announcing that it will not renew its £3m-a-year agreement this summer.

• Nicolas Anelka
• West Bromwich Albion
• The FA
• Premier League

theguardian.com