Former Manchester United defender Gary Neville has come up with a novel way for England to still wear the OneLove armband at the World Cup and avoid a ban.
Harry Kane previously intended to don the armband to advocate solidarity and inclusion during the Three Lions’ Group B opener against Iran on Monday. Due to the threat of an instant yellow card, however, the decision was made to not follow through with the idea.
A Football Association statement on Monday read: “ 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.”
In response to the ban, Neville has offered a suggestion as to how the England team could get around the threat of any yellow cards - by rotating the armband through the Three Lions’ coaching staff. Taking to Twitter in response to the FA’s statement, the ex-England right-back wrote: “Gareth [Southgate] game one, Steve Holland game two, Keeper coach game three, Physio game four, Etc.”
What are your thoughts on England's decision not to wear OneLove armbands in Qatar? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
England are not the only nation to have backtracked on the decision to don the armband in Qatar. Netherlands are also not going to wear it despite Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk having set out his intentions to do so.
Speaking in a press conference on Sunday, he said: "I will wear the OneLove armband tomorrow. Nothing changed from our point of view.
"If I will get a yellow card for wearing it then we would have to discuss it because I don't like to play while being on a yellow."
Meanwhile, Denmark head coach Kasper Hjulmand has hit out at the laws of the game by maintaining that yellow cards should only be used for offences on the field of play
He said: “I think this shouldn’t be up to the players. This is not a players’ decision. Imagine gong onto the pitch with clear yellow card? Sports’ sanctions should have something to do with the sport.
“Yellow card? We can’t allow the players to go on the pitch with that. It’s up to the federation to sort it out.”
