FIFA Pushes European Players to Drop Plans to Wear Armbands

FIFA Pushes European Players to Drop Plans to Wear Armbands

The soccer organizations of seven European countries said their team captains will not wear a colorful armband at the soccer World Cup in Qatar. A captain is a player who leads the team on the field.

The team leaders from England, Wales, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany and Denmark had planned to wear the ‘OneLove' armbands on the field. The armband was to show support for diversity and inclusion.

But on Sunday, before the first European team was to play, soccer governing body FIFA said players who wore the ‘OneLove' armband would be punished with a yellow card.

A yellow card is usually given to players who break rules or make illegal plays. If players get two yellow cards, they are forced out of the game.

The captains and their national organizations said it was too risky¹ to start their most important games in many years with a yellow card. In a statement sent Monday, the European countries said their players would not wear the armbands. They said, "FIFA has been very clear that it will impose sporting sanctions if our captains wear the armbands on the field of play."

Harry² Kane is the captain for England. He said on Sunday that he wanted to wear the armband. But when the game against Iran began on Monday, he was not wearing it.

The Netherlands played Senegal on Monday and the country's soccer organization said it gave up the plan because "you don't want the captain to start the match with a yellow card."

The move was criticized by groups representing the LGBT community. LGBT is the shortened form of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender.

3LionsPride, a group of England fans, said the captain's "basic rights to freedom of speech and expression are being crushed by FIFA." And England's Football Supporters' Association added: "Today we feel contempt for an organization that has shown its true values by giving the yellow card to players and the red card to tolerance³."

The human rights group Amnesty International said "FIFA should be leading, not cracking down on" issues such as diversity and inclusion.

No response from FIFA

The statement from the European teams said they were "very frustrated⁴" by the FIFA decision. It came days after FIFA president Gianni Infantino said "... I feel gay" while defending the decision to hold the World Cup in Qatar. It is a country where homosexuality remains⁵ illegal.

They said they wrote to FIFA in September to tell of its plan "to actively⁶ support inclusion in football, and had no response." The group added that "our players and coaches are disappointed – they are strong supporters of inclusion and will show support in other ways."

For the World Cup, FIFA started its own armband plan to support different causes. After the decision on Sunday, FIFA said it would move its "no discrimination" armband plan up so all 32 captains would be able to wear it. FIFA said in a statement that under its rules, "the captain of each team must wear the captain's armband provided by FIFA."

Stan Collymore is a former player for the England team. He said Kane should wear the original armband and take the yellow card. "It's about more than football," he wrote on Twitter.

Words in This Story

diversity –n. the quality of having many different people, races or cultures in a group or organization

inclusion –n. the act of making someone part of something

sanction –n. a punishment or restriction⁷ placed on one group

tolerance –n. the idea of being accepting of ideas or people different from your own

crack down –v. to punish or restrict something

homosexuality –n. the state of being romantically attracted to someone of the same sex

coach–n. the leader or manager of a sports team

1 risky   

adj.有风险的，冒险的

参考例句：

• It may be risky but we will chance it anyhow.这可能有危险，但我们无论如何要冒一冒险。
• He is well aware how risky this investment is.他心里对这项投资的风险十分清楚。

2 harry   

vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼

参考例句：

• Today,people feel more hurried and harried.今天，人们感到更加忙碌和苦恼。
• Obama harried business by Healthcare Reform plan.奥巴马用医改掠夺了商界。

3 tolerance   

n.宽容；容忍，忍受；耐药力；公差

参考例句：

• Tolerance is one of his strengths.宽容是他的一个优点。
• Human beings have limited tolerance of noise.人类对噪音的忍耐力有限。

4 frustrated   

adj.挫败的，失意的，泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的过去式和过去分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's very easy to get frustrated in this job. 这个工作很容易令人懊恼。
• The bad weather frustrated all our hopes of going out. 恶劣的天气破坏了我们出行的愿望。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

6 actively   

adv.积极地，勤奋地

参考例句：

• During this period all the students were actively participating.在这节课中所有的学生都积极参加。
• We are actively intervening to settle a quarrel.我们正在积极调解争执。

7 restriction   

n.限制，约束

参考例句：

• The park is open to the public without restriction.这个公园对公众开放，没有任何限制。
• The 30 mph speed restriction applies in all built-up areas.每小时限速30英里适用于所有建筑物聚集区。