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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The 48-year-old artist, also known as Ye, has been heavily criticised for making antisemitic remarks and voicing admiration for Adolf Hitler.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Reigning Swiss champions Basel said they were interested in making more use of the venue in the northern city and carefully reviewed all enquiries.<\/p>\n
“In this case, FCB received an enquiry and considered it,” a spokesman for the club told AFP when asked about West.<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
The musician and producer has lost fans and several sponsorships in recent years following inflammatory comments and actions.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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