The aces of info | The inconvenient rainbow

Before the start of the Soccer World Cup, several teams had decided to wear a multicolored armband called “One Love” during matches. It was a small piece of fabric with a heart filled with six colored stripes. It was supposed to symbolize inclusion and diversity and above all to mark the support of the wearer for the LGBTQ+ community. However, not everything went as planned…

Qatar and homosexuality, that’s two…

In Qatar, the country hosting the World Cup this year, homosexuality is illegal. Twelve days before the start of the matches, a Qatari World Cup ambassador even called homosexuality “mental damage”.

Wearing this kind of badge would therefore have been seen as a criticism of the host country and as a political act. This is why FIFA (federation which organizes the World Cup) has decided to ban these armbands, to replace them with official armbands made available to the 32 teams in competition. These carry “positive” messages such as “Save the planet”, “Education for all” or “No to discrimination”. You can see an example of this in the photo below.

FIFA ready to punish

Fines were foreseen for teams who refused to get rid of the multicolored fabrics. Seven teams still decided to wear them. FIFA has therefore decided to act more severely. She warned that if the captains entered the field with this armband, they would be shown a yellow card.

“As national federations, we cannot ask our players to risk sporting sanctions, including yellow cards,” the federations of the seven nations wrote in a joint statement, announcing that they were giving up the armband. These are Germany, England, Belgium, Denmark, Scotland, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

All this history contributes to reinforce the tensions between FIFA and the various member countries. We’ll see what comes of it!