The Football Association have announced that England captain Harry Kane will not be wearing the One Love armband in England’s game against Iran this afternoon.
Previously, FA chief executive Mark Bullingham had backed the decision to wear the armband and was willing to pay if there were sanctions , “I think there’s a possibility that we might be fined. And if we are, then we’ll pay the fine.
“We think it’s really important to show our values. And that’s what we’ll be doing.”
However, hours before kick off, the FA have released a statement explaining the situation, “FIFA has been very clear that it will impose sporting sanctions if our captains wear the armbands on the field of play. As national federations, we can’t put our players in a position where they could face sporting sanctions including bookings, so we have asked the captains not to attempt to wear the armbands in FIFA World Cup games”.
Speaking prior to the change of decision Jordan Bonner from Gloucestershire Pride thinks that the armband wouldn’t have been a strong enough message, “Personally I would’ve loved somebody to turn around and say we’re not going to go to the World Cup due to the human rights issues.”
A group of European countries led by the Netherlands had planned on wearing the armband as a gesture of unity to the LGBT community.
FIFA had already stated that they were against the movement and coupled with their president Gianni Infantino’s interview on the issue of human rights in Qatar it is no surprise that teams have been forced into making a decision that goes against their own moral views.
Bonner thinks that having a World Cup in a country like Qatar could potentially stop some players from coming out, “Whether you are gay, straight, bisexual or trans. However you identify is not a choice, to have a World Cup in Qatar is very dangerous. When you have high profile figures like a World Cup ambassador making upsetting comments it could certainly hinder future players from feeling comfortable enough in themselves to come out to the football world.”
