FIFA has banned team captains from wearing the OneLove headband during World Cup matches in Qatar. The World Federation has decided that players who wear it will be given a yellow card before the start of matches.

England, Germany, Holland, Wales, Belgium, Denmark and Switzerland issued a statement explaining why they withdrew and their captains would not wear armbands. The seven football confederations were determined to circumvent the rule that every national team’s kit must not include political, religious or personal slogans, statements or images, but the punishment of the players forced them to back down.

“FIFA has made it clear that it will apply sporting sanctions if our team captains show up on the pitch wearing OneLove armbands. As national associations, we have decided that we cannot put players in a situation that will result in sports sanctions, including cards, so we have asked them not to wear them at World Cup games. We were willing to pay the fines that are usually imposed for violating the rules for wearing T-shirts, and we really wanted to wear them. However, we cannot put players in a situation where they can get a yellow card or even be forced to leave the field.

We are very disappointed by FIFA’s decision, which we consider unreasonable – in September we wrote to FIFA and informed them of our desire to wear it in order to support its integration into football, and received no response. Our players and coaches are disappointed – they are clearly fans of their inclusion in football, ”the message says.

Violation: England and Wales will not wear One Love armbands

“We cannot put our players in a situation where they can be warned or even forced to leave the field.” pic.twitter.com/6ySojM4Jas

— Rob Harris (@RobHarris) November 21, 2022