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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport

Fifa’s rainbow armband ban is shameful

A OneLove armband on the arm of Harry Kane, the England football team captain
A OneLove armband on the arm of Harry Kane, the England football team captain. Plans for him to wear the armband at the World Cup were scrapped after Fifa said those who did so would face sporting sanctions including bookings. Photograph: The FA/PA

As the father of a beautiful 29-year-old daughter who is overjoyed to see her living happily with her lovely same-sex partner, I am upset and angered by Fifa’s ban on the OneLove rainbow armband at the World Cup. Shame on them. Fifa does not represent the game we love, nor the world we live in.
John Thompson
Former sports editor, Liverpool Echo

• Surely if team captains are asked to leave the field for wearing a rainbow armband, the solution is simple: as Harry Kane or Gareth Bale leaves the field, they pass the armband to their deputy, who in turn is asked to leave and…
John Lovelock
Bristol

• As the apologists won’t allow the rainbow armband, I suggest that players of all teams wear black armbands in tribute to all those workers who died in pursuit of this sportswashing exercise.
Roy Crossley
Arona, Tenerife, Canary Islands

• Where can we buy OneLove armbands? Presumably Fifa can’t stop us wearing them.
Ron Nixon
Oxford

• So, Gary Lineker will “report [but] not support” the World Cup in Qatar. This morning I “ate but did not consume” my breakfast.
Amanda Baker
Edinburgh

• In his opening remarks at the start of the BBC’s World Cup coverage, a football pundit tells us how concerned he is about migrant workers in Qatar. In the interests of balance, perhaps we could hear how concerned a migrant worker might be at the pundit’s earnings.
Ian Short
London

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