Skip to content

Tense stand-off between FIFA and World Cup team captains in Qatar over unauthorized ‘One Love’ armbands

  • by

FIFA has tried to end a stand-off with European teams about unauthorized captain armbands for an anti-discrimination campaign drawing attention to Qatar in a tense meeting at the World Cup.

However, it was unsuccessful.

FIFA wanted seven European soccer federations to back down from allowing their captains to wear “One Love” armbands — a heart-shaped, multi-colored logo aimed at exposing the host country’s record on human rights.

During the latest meeting, FIFA failed to persuade the Europeans with a counterproposal — announced on Saturday, local time, and backed by United Nations agencies — of armbands with socially aware, though generic, slogans.

The urgency of the meeting at a luxury hotel in Doha was because England, the Netherlands and Wales all played on Monday in their respective World Cup opening games.

Harry Kane sits at a table behind a wall of world cup logos.
England’s Harry Kane gave a press conference following the tense meeting with FIFA officials. (AP: Abbie Parr)

“I think we’ve made it clear that we want to wear it,” England captain Harry Kane said on Sunday evening in Doha, ahead of playing Iran.

Wales coach Robert Page said it would be “no different for us” at the late game on Monday against the United States.

The stand-off has set up the prospect of viewers worldwide seeing — in back-to-back-to-back games — a symbol disapproved by the host country and in defiance of FIFA on the arms of Kane, Wales captain Gareth Bale and Netherlands captain Virgil van Dijk.

“We will stay with the European position,” German soccer federation president Bernd Neuendorf said a day after team captain Manuel Neuer had promised to wear the “One Love” armband against Japan on Wednesday.

“FIFA came up with their own armband idea just two days ago. That was not acceptable for us,” Neuendorf told German broadcaster ZDF.

Other officials declined to comment when leaving the meeting, but some noted the heated tone of exchanges.

FIFA also declined to comment but, on Saturday, said it was “committed to using the power of football to effect positive change around the world”.

The armband dispute flared two months ago and was still not resolved on the opening day of the tournament, despite being a clear breach of FIFA regulations.

“For FIFA final competitions, the captain of each team must wear the captain’s armband provided by FIFA,” the soccer body’s equipment regulations state.

A similar rule had been written into tournament rules for this year’s World Cup.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume.

Play Video.  Duration: 15 minutes 55 seconds

Human rights activists claim 6,500 migrant workers have died since Qatar was named host. How will this high human toll impact the world’s biggest single sporting event?

‘One Love’ vs FIFA’s in-house alternative

FIFA would typically open disciplinary cases if teams breached the rule, but its scope for punishment is likely limited to imposing fines of about 10,000 Swiss francs ($15,714.20) on some of its wealthiest member federations.

The “One Love” campaign promotes diversity and inclusion in soccer and was started in the Netherlands.

.