The statue, made by Dutch sculptor Gerarda Rueb, was removed from outside the Stadium built for the 1928 Olympic Games earlier this year due to its connotation with fascism.

The non-profit group Het Cuypersgenootschap filed a lawsuit over the matter, but the Amsterdam District Court has ruled in favour of the Stadium management, the NL Times reported.

The decision to move the statue into the stairwell of the Olympic Stadium in the Dutch capital was based on a study that showed that it reflected a fascist tradition, even though it was built before the Nazis under Adolf Hitler rose to power.

Het Cuypersgenootschap, which works to preserve the architectural heritage in The Netherlands primarily from the 19th and 20th centuries, challenged the decision to move the statue in Court.

They claimed that people may have felt uncomfortable with the statue "but if we brush all that away nothing remains," a representative said in an interview with Amsterdam broadcaster AT5.

Het Cuypersgenootschap also argued, "that there is no need to move the monument, since no social turmoil is known…The monument has not been attacked or damaged," the Court noted in its ruling.

This was disputed, however.

"The statue of the athlete was vandalised with red paint and the text ‘fck nzs’ is written on the base," the Court said referring to a photo shown at the hearing which was taken in January.

The statue is supposed to represent Frits van Tuyll van Serooskerken, the first Dutch member of the International Olympic Committee and founding President of the Dutch National Olympic Committee, who died in 1924 - nine years before Hitler came to power in Germany.

But the Court ruled that "the association of the monument with the Hitler salute is so strong that hardly any other associations can be made.

"It follows that the way in which the salute is depicted was already used by fascists in 1928 but was also seen at the Olympic Games until the Second World War."

The Court ruled that the Stadium was allowed to follow the advice they received "in order to prevent the monument from causing misunderstanding among visitors because of its association with the Hitler salute."

Additionally, those people who still wish to view the monument at the Stadium may do so, as it is still accessible to the public during events and guided tours.

"Further, moving the statue did not damage it, and can be moved again at a later date if desired," the Court concluded in its ruling.