Captains of seven European teams, including former champions Germany and England, were set to wear rainbow-marked armbands, which bear the words "OneLove" on them and feature the number one inside a heart, during World Cup 2022 being held in Qatar to promote diversity and inclusion in football and society.
This created the possibility that on Monday (November 21, 2022), Harry Kane of England, Virgil van Dijk of the Netherlands, and on Tuesday (November 22, 2022) Gareth Bale of Wales would wear the mark of protest against the host nation Qatar and in defiance of FIFA.
However, after facing threat from the governing body of world football of on-field punishment for players, England, Wales, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands will not wear the One Love armbands.
READ: FIFA’s punishment threat forces European team captains to abandon ‘One Love’ armbands
Same-sex relationships are criminalised in host nation Qatar where members of the LGBTQ community were sent behind bars and harassed by authorities as recently as September, according to Human Rights Watch.
The seven European teams reversed course Monday and abandoned a plan for their captains to wear armbands to protest Qatar's human rights record as threats of "sporting sanctions from FIFA left them no choice but to abandon" the One Love campaign gesture they announced in September.
Just hours before the first players wearing the armbands, supposed to act as a form of silent protest not dissimilar to taking the knee as a symbol of anti-racist solidarity, were set to enter the field, FIFA warned that they would be issued yellow cards right away as the displays are "against" its regulations.
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In the end, the teams said they could not sacrifice success on the field. A yellow card is a warning, but two yellows would see a player sent off the field for the rest of the match and banned from the next – a sanction that is intensified in the World Cup football format, where teams play just three matches before the elimination rounds begin.
"As national federations, we can't put our players in a position where they could face sporting sanctions, including bookings," the seven European football federations said in a joint statement.
During a meeting with European football federations on Sunday, FIFA mentioned the possibility of yellow cards.
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For FIFA final competitions, the captain of each team must wear the captain's armband provided by FIFA, according to the equipment rules.
FIFA's proposal, announced Saturday, was for captains to wear armbands with socially aware slogans. In that offer, armbands reading "No Discrimination" – the only one of its chosen slogans aligned with the European teams' wish – would appear only at the quarterfinal stage.
Since being awarded the World Cup hosting rights in 2010, Qatar received a wave of international backlash for its treatment of low-paid migrant workers as well as its criminalisation of homosexuality.
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The Dutch Football Association initiated the One Love campaign at the start of the 2020 football season to "express their support for unification of all people" and condemn all forms of discrimination.
In September 2022, it was announced that nine other nations, including Norway, Sweden, and France, would also adopt the One Love campaign for upcoming matches, including the Qatar World Cup and next year's UEFA Nations League.