The captains of England, Wales, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland, will not wear the ‘OneLove’ anti-discrimination armband at the going FIFA World Cup being hosted in Qatar.
In a joint statement by the Football Associations of the aforementioned countries, the FAs said they would not want to put their team Captains in a position where they stand the risk of facing sporting sanctions because they wore the armband.
“FIFA has been very clear that it will impose sporting sanctions if our captains wear the armbands on the field of play, [but] we cannot put our players in the situation where they might be booked or even forced to leave the field of play.”
Football Associations
The FAs revealed that they had written to FIFA in September about the ‘OneLove’ armband. However, they did not receive any response from the World football governing body.
Meanwhile, the FAs claimed they were determined to make their Captains wear the ban as a show of their solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community even though FIFA had not given them the permission to.
“We were prepared to pay fines that would normally apply to breaches of kit regulations and had a strong commitment to wearing the armband,” the statement read in part.
“We are very frustrated by the FIFA decision which we believe is unprecedented,” a portion of the statement read.
However, following the announcement by the FAs, FIFA has decided to make its ‘No Discrimination’ armbands available all through the tournament.
The ‘No Discrimination’ armband is one of the seven official armbands announced by FIFA. The armband was expected to be worn from the quarter finals stage of the competition.
“Following discussions, FIFA can confirm its ‘No Discrimination’ campaign has been brought forward from the planned quarterfinals stage in order that all 32 captains will have the opportunity to wear this armband during the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.”
Football Associations
Three of the affected countries; England, Wales and Netherlands will begin their World cup campaigns today.
England To Take the Knee
England’s Coach, Gareth Southgate disclosed at a pre-match press conference yesterday that, ‘The Three Lions of England’ team will take the knee at their opening World cup fixture.
England will be facing Iran today in the opening game of Group B at 1pm GMT.
Even though England Captain, Harry Kane, will not wear the ‘OneLove’ armband, Southgate said his men will continue with their tradition of taking the knee as a gesture against racism before the match commences.
“It’s what we stand for as a team and have done for a long period of time. We feel this is the biggest and we think it’s a strong statement that will go around the world for young people, in particular, to see that inclusivity is very important.”
Gareth Southgate, England Coach
The Three Lions have carried out the anti-racism gesture before their matches since the death of African-American, George Floyd in 2020.
They have decided to continue with the gesture during the tournament in Qatar after recent talks.
Premier League players also took the knee before matches following football’s return from the Covid-19 shutdown in the summer of 2020.
At the start of 2022/23 Premier league season, it was decided to use specific moments in the course of the season to take the knee rather than performing the gesture during every match.
