Sydney United 58 players greet their supporters after being defeated in the Australia Cup Final soccer match between Sydney United 58 and Macarthur FC at Commbank Stadium in Sydney, Saturday, October 1, 2022. Photo: AAPIMAGE via Reuters Connect

A soccer fan in Australia said the press “twisted” an image of him to make it appear like he was doing the Nazi salute at a major soccer game, Australian news outlets reported on Monday.

Dominik Sieben, 25, is accused of knowingly displaying in public a Nazi symbol without a reasonable excuse. He appeared in a New South Wales (NSW) court on Monday with two other men who face the same charges — Nikola Marko Gasparovic and Marijan Lisica — regarding an incident that happened at the Australia Cup final between Sydney United 58 and Macarthur FC on Oct. 1, 2022, at Parramatta’s CommBank Stadium. All three Sydney United fans — who are Croatian and do not know each other — were caught allegedly performing the “Seig Hitler” salute on the stadium’s security cameras and cameras broadcasting the game for a local channel. The three men were not sitting next to each other.

The Sydney United team was originally called Sydney Croatia because it was largely comprised of migrants from Croatia who settled in Australia. It was renamed in 1993.

Magistrate Joy Boulas at Parramatta Local Court in New South Wales (NSW) was played footage of an interview that Sieben did with NSW police in Feb. 2023 at his home in Sydney. During his questioning, Sieben denied doing the Nazi salute at the Australian Cup final. He said he had a beer in one hand and was just trying to cheer on his team with his other arm.

“It was disgusting, the whole thing, everything that was accused of me,” he told police. “Everyone was chanting … the media grabbed my photo and twisted the entire thing and made it look like someone I’m not. It had nothing to do with the Hitler crap … any of that crap … it was blown out of proportion so much.”

Sieben claimed he was caught on camera from a “low angle,” which gave a deceiving portrayal of reality. “I think that honestly … [the media] twisted the entire thing,” he added. He further told police he had “eight to nine” friends who are Jewish.

“Two or three of them I see on a regular basis,” he said. “When they saw it they literally laughed.”

The court was told Gasparovic, 46, and Lisica, 45, chanted a song at the Australia Cup final that is linked to a Croatian far-right movement, according to local reports. Lisica also wore army camouflage to the game and Gasparovic carried a “World War II-era Nazi” flag,” a police prosecutor told the court. Gasparovic “acknowledges doing an action but denies any association with Nazism,” the police prosecutor added. The case is ongoing.