Marvin Plattenhardt
Hertha Berlin's Marvin Plattenhardt has requested that the Berlin arm of the AfD remove the photo of him with a party politician from their Twitter account REUTERS/Ina Fassbender

A Berlin football club has filed a case against German rightwing political party Alternative for Germany (AfD), over a photograph that they posted of a party politician posing with the team's star player.

Hertha Berlin, popularly known as Hertha BSC, have applied for a court injuction against AfD's Berlin branch demanding that they remove the photo, which was posted on Twitter following a match.

The photo showed politician Frank Scheermesser posing with defender Marvin Plattenhardt after a game against Brorussia Dortmund on 11 March in which he scored the winning goal. It featured the caption: "Our lawmaker with the winning scorer".

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According to The Guardian, the club's lawyer, Christian-Oliver Moser, said the tweet breached Plattenhardt's rights and the party could face fines of up to €250,000 (£218,000).

The 25-year-old Bundesliga player explained to reporters that he was signing autographs for fans following his latest win and did not know that the man posing for a photo was an AfD politician. He also tweeted a message to the party requesting them to delete the image.

"Please immediately delete photo! I had no idea who let himself be photographed there with me! I dissociate myself clear!" his post read.

The populist AfD has gained popularity in Germany for its staunch opposition of the country's open door policies in regards to immigration. Founded in 2013, in response to the growing number of immigrants, the party has criticised the growing population of Muslims claiming that "Islam is not part of Germany" and has called for a blanket ban on all Islamic symbols.

The group believes that the nation is "losing its cultural identity because of a flawed notion of tolerance" and that they "want to pass on to coming generations a country that is still recognisable as our Germany".