WUERZBURG, Germany, June 19 - The Ghanaian Football Association apologised on Monday after one of its players waved an Israeli flag to celebrate their 2-0 World Cup win against the Czech Republic.

Ghana's John Painstil (R) holds an Israeli flag during their Group E World Cup 2006 soccer match in Cologne June 17, 2006. [Reuters]

Team spokesman Randy Abbey said it was important to point out that the Ghanaian FA was not trying to take sides in the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.

Defender John Paintsil was very popular in Israel where he plays for Hapoel Tel Aviv and had wanted to acknowledge the Israeli fans who had travelled to Germany to support him, Abbey said.

"He is obviously unaware of the implications of what he did. He's unaware of international politics. We apologise to anybody who was offended and we promise that it will never happen again.

"He did not act out of malice for the Arab people or in support of Israel. He was naive... we don't need to punish him."

Paintsil celebrated the two Ghana goals on Saturday by taking out a small Israeli flag from his sock and waving it above his head.

Abbey said neither the Ghanaian FA nor Ghana as a country had a strong political position on the subject and said they were just in Germany for the World Cup.

"We are not in support or against Israel or the Arab nations. We are here to do football, we are not here to do politics."

A spokesman for FIFA had said they had no problem with the gesture and Israel's Sports Minister Ofir Pines-Paz had been quoted as praising Paintsil for his actions and saying Ghana had gained many Israeli fans.