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Swiss football club turn down Kanye West concert approach / Photo: JEAN-BAPTISTE LACROIX - AFP/File
Swiss football club turn down Kanye West concert approach
Swiss football club FC Basel on Monday confirmed to AFP they had turned down an approach about staging a Kanye West concert at their St. Jakob-Park ground.
The US rapper had a string of performances in Europe lined up over the coming months, but several have been cancelled or postponed in the last fortnight.
The 48-year-old artist, also known as Ye, has been heavily criticised for making antisemitic remarks and voicing admiration for Adolf Hitler.
St. Jakob-Park in Basel, on the French and German borders, is the biggest-capacity sports stadium in Switzerland and staged the UEFA Women's Euro 2025 final. The venue can host 40,000 fans during concerts.
Reigning Swiss champions Basel said they were interested in making more use of the venue in the northern city and carefully reviewed all enquiries.
"In this case, FCB received an enquiry and considered it," a spokesman for the club told AFP when asked about West.
"However, after a thorough review, we decided not to pursue the project further, as we cannot, in accordance with our values, provide a platform for the artist in question within this context."
The musician and producer has lost fans and several sponsorships in recent years following inflammatory comments and actions.
No Basel concert was ever officially confirmed. It is understood that FC Basel was approached about a possible June 26 concert date but turned down the enquiry.
Britain has blocked the US rapper from entering the country due to his outbursts, prompting organisers of a three-night London festival he was headlining to cancel the July event.
West then announced last week that a concert he had planned to give in the French city of Marseille on June 11 had been postponed after authorities voiced opposition.
And a concert scheduled to take place in Poland on June 19 was cancelled by the venue in Chorzow on Friday, following condemnation of his antisemitic remarks.
West has previously said "I love Nazis", sold t-shirts featuring a swastika on his website, and last year released a track titled "Heil Hitler", which was banned by the main streaming platforms.
In January this year, he took out a full-page advert in The Wall Street Journal newspaper to declare "I am not a Nazi or an antisemite". He attributed his controversial behaviour to a "manic episode" brought on by bipolar disorder.
S.Belanger--SMC
