England have confirmed that they will not wear the OneLove armband in their World Cup opener against Iran this afternoon.
The announcement came after FIFA threatened them with sporting sanctions in what national FA’s have described as an “unprecedented” move.
Three Lions captain Harry Kane was due to wear the rainbow armband to show support for the LGBTQ+ community and promote diversity and inclusion in Qatar, a country where same-sex relationships are criminalised, and spread a message of tolerance to millions of TV viewers around the world.
However, the Football Association has confirmed in a statement that it has backed down, with Kane potentially set to be booked before the game even got underway.
In a joint statement, the FAs of England, Wales, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands and Switzerland – who had all been due to wear the armbands – said: “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.
“We were prepared to pay fines that would normally apply to breaches of kit regulations and had a strong commitment to wearing the armband. However, we cannot put our players in the situation where they might be booked or even forced to leave the field of play.
“We are very frustrated by the FIFA decision which we believe is unprecedented – we wrote to FIFA in September informing them of our wish to wear the One Love armband to actively support inclusion in football, and had no response. Our players and coaches are disappointed – they are strong supporters of inclusion and will show support in other ways.”
