FIFA achieves with threats that the captains do not wear the rainbow bracelet in Qatar

FIFA has managed to prevent Harry Kane, Virgil van Dijk and Gareth Bale from wearing the rainbow bracelets that they had announced they would wear as part of the campaign this Monday in their matches in Qatar

One Love “against all kinds of discrimination”.

Just three hours before the debut in the World Cup in England against Iran (this Monday at 2:00 p.m.), this federation and the Welsh federation have issued a joint statement announcing their surrender in the face of Infantino's opposition to publicly defending the rights of the community LGTBI in Qatar, where homosexuality is considered a crime: "FIFA has made it very clear that it will impose sporting sanctions if our captains wear the armbands on the pitch," the text says.

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The Netherlands federation, promoter of the initiative, recounted in another statement the last-minute threat put on the table by FIFA, after having been negotiating with them continuously for the last two days, and waiting two months for a response. to the letter they sent him on the matter: "Today, hours before the first game, FIFA has made it clear to us (officially) that the captain will receive a yellow card if he wears the OneLove captain's armband."

The Federation of Fan Associations also showed their anger: "We feel betrayed," they say in a statement.

“Never again should a country be given a World Cup just for the money.

No country with problems with LGTBI+ rights, women's rights, workers' rights, or any other human right, should receive the honor of organizing a World Cup”.

#QatarWorldCup2022 #OneLove pic.twitter.com/2NNgZrL5IX

— The FSA (@WeAreTheFSA) November 21, 2022

Infantino's threat of reprimands has been what has ended up yielding to the footballers, as the British federations explain in their joint text: "We were prepared to pay the fines that are normally applied to violations of kit regulations and we had the strong commitment to wear the bracelet.

However, we cannot put our players in a situation where they can be booked and even forced to leave the field of play, ”he continues.

"We are very frustrated with FIFA's decision, which we believe is unprecedented."

On September 19, the 10 federations participating in the initiative sent a letter to FIFA inviting it to join.

The answer did not come, in the same way that his president, Gianni Infantino, did not want to clarify in public the real consequences of the gesture in his long press appearance this Monday.

That day he said that he felt gay, but hinted that he was opposed to the gesture of the bracelet that was intended to defend the rights of the LGTBI community in the host country, which considers homosexuality a crime.

The day he said he felt gay, and in which his communication director said that he was, and that he felt welcome, Infantino explained that FIFA could only defend causes that could be shared by all.

Not like this, he understood.

Instead, he asked them to join the various campaigns they will run during the tournament.

The one with the rainbow bracelet has been the second surrender of Infantino to Qatar, after also prohibiting the sale of alcoholic beer at the last minute on the perimeter of the stadiums.

The One Love initiative had been joined by 10 federations, although two of them do not participate in the World Cup, Norway and Sweden.

In addition, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, England, Wales, Switzerland and France had joined, although their captain, Hugo Lloris, had already announced that he would not wear the rainbow bracelet.

He says that he must respect the customs of the host country, just as France asks foreigners to respect theirs.

The European Commission, for its part, considers it "very important" that the causes represented by the bracelet are known throughout the world, according to

from Brussels.

Although the European Commission does not have powers in the matter and, therefore, cannot formally pronounce itself, the spokesperson for the European Executive, Dana Spinant, recalled this Monday that, for Brussels, "it is very important that the causes represented by the bracelet rainbows are recognized both by us Europeans and in the rest of the world”.

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