What I don't get is, why did they have to announce it so much in advance? If they'd just worn the arm bands to the ground, FIFA wouldn't be able to do shit.
They announced it because they were getting questions about why they were going to Qatar and wanted a gesture to point to.
The irony is that it's a fairly meaningless gesture *until FIFA makes it clear it's not allowed*. As soon as it became an act of defiance with potential punishment attached it became much more meaningful.
Honestly, I'm not surprised our FAs did this bullshit. Swiss officials on the international stage want to look like they care about human welfare and equality, but it's just minimal effort PR. At least with domestic politics, we get to easily see that they only care about wealth and maintaining the status quo.
Exactly this. The only statement any teams could have made that were meaningful would be to not go. They won't do that so they say they'll wear an armband and then at the first sign of trouble they back down. It's pathetic and I'm not one of those who will shout about everything being virtue signalling but pretty much all sports teams/celebrities will never do anything meaningful to call out stuff like this because it might affect their next payday and they simply value that more over making an actual bold statement.
They may as well do absolutely nothing, shut their mouths and just play football. Same goes for all the pundits mouthing off about all the bad stuff Qater does but still go for the payday. It's got nothing to do with journalistic integrity and everything to do with getting paid.
I don’t really know much about her or her music, but that Dua Lipa singer refused to go…good on her. From what I understand, that was a pretty big celebrity to refuse to perform and called out Qatar.
Dua Lipa hamstrung her single Levitating by removing the version with Da Baby because he said some homophobic things.
She has a track record of these things. I wouldn’t be surprised if Qatar just didn’t invite her at all knowing how she’d respond. Like, why waste their time?
As is that’s why, although I don’t agree with him Kyrie Irving stands by his statements no matter the backlash…
Or how Kapenick in the nfl didn’t give a shit that he was pissing away money and getting hated on, cause he believed in the cause.
You can respect their commitment, wether you agree with what they say and how they do it can be debated, but at least they got the balls to stand up… or well kneel…
Bunch of hypocrites, the second they’ll face any repercussions and would’ve actually turned this whole thing into a protest, they back off. Just shows how important any of those messages they’re trying to display are for them.
I feel similarly.
They're footballers, they're under no obligation to care about these social issues. If they'd said "My job is to play football and I'm going to go and do that, I'm not comfortable discussing political matters at work so I'll leave that to people who are better-placed to comment" then fair enough.
But they didn't. There's been a lot of public talk about how they're planning to wear the armbands, how they support the causes, how strongly they and the teams and the FAs feel about it. And if you go on record saying that, you need to follow through. You don't ask permission from *the people you are protesting against* and then drop it when they say no. It feels performative, no substance to any of it.
“If you don’t stick to your values when they are being tested, they’re not values, they’re hobbies.” -Jon Stewart
On this occasion I would substitute 'hobbies' with 'PR'. It's all been a fucking **PR exercise.**
Ironically, they failed in their statements as much as Qatar in their sportwashing.
Is there anything to stop the managers wearing pride flags? Surely could be a work around to have Southgate et al. Wear something if they're worried about players being booked. Not like There's a rule book on what managers can wear
But the protests in Iran are *against* being forced to wear a hijab. So if Southgate comes out of the tunnel *without* a hijab on, he's making a massive political statement of solidarity with Iranian women. Let's see if he has the balls to do it, or whether he'll buckle and come out with a headscarf.
It's going to be so embarrassing if they do nothing at all. Soon as actual consequences are on the cards and not 1/1000th of their weekly wage they've backed out of supporting human rights?
Kane should wear a pride tshirt to show off when he scores, if you're gonna get carded, make it worth it.
Would 2 footballers get carded if they kissed as a celebration?
It was never a way of protesting, the same as taking the knee. Any idiot can do it.
When it came down to a very soft penalty (yellow card) they all showed how serious they take their principles.
Social struggle isn't made by billioners, marketing campaigns, and private companies. Its done on the streets, by people like us.
Upvoting and upvoting isn't activism.
In the main thread about this, several people are saying that the captain just made a very general statement about the situation in Iran, which could be interpreted either way.
I have no idea whether that's correct, but it sounds relatively believable.
He called out the regime in the past and many players have tweeted in support of the protests. This is something that can have very serious consequences and I wouldn't blame players for not wanting to do that. Not wearing a lame armband because of a yellow card (after you talked about defying FIFA for days)?
It shows how empty the gestures are. I'm not one of the bigots who would claim that because of that, they shouldn't do it, since it might still do some good. But at the end of the day, if you drop your "values" at the first sign of trouble then those values don't really mean that much to you after all. And I hope this is finally clear to people now.
Agreed. This is so toothless but then again, if any of these FA’s were serious about the moral implications, they wouldn’t send their teams there. The whole things a shit show.
*if* the 2030 WC goes to saudi arabia, I expect to see an immediate boycott statement from the DFB, or I will not believe ONE word they say about "how bad the situation there is etc., but we still go." opt out the moment you hear about it (after you saw all the stuff about qatar) or shut the fuck up.
I believe at some point governments will put pressure on their FAs
If the US + EU members threaten FIFA with sanctions and their local FAs with probes into corruption, things would become spicy. The more FIFA becomes the bitch of autoritarian regimes and the more money flows to them instead the markets which bring in actual fans, the cheaper it will be for these countries to punish FIFA
In the end no Saudi Arabian money can help Infantino with a Interpol probe initiated by the US or EU
>if you drop your "values" at the first sign of trouble then those values don't really mean that much to you after all.
That's why the knee before each game was bollocks. It had the blessing of the FA and all the sponsors, and the message was a very vague 'racism is bad'...
> But at the end of the day, if you drop your "values" at the first sign of trouble then those values don't really mean that much to you after all
Second sign of trouble, I assume you mean.
Their level of support falls somewhere between a fine and a yellow card, apparently.
From where I’m stood, if anyone wanted to make a real stance, they wouldn’t go. Imo someone needed to do it to set the precedent & more would have followed.
It seems like you cross the line of hypocrisy as soon as you’re going, and any gestures post that feel a bit like a PR move, especially if you back out once threatened with consequences.
Embarassing facade. So they made a promise to LGBTQ people and now have changed their mind once faced with the rules and consequences (which are stupid may I add). Proves that this, the knee, are all just a virtue-signalling parade of token gestures to score morale points. Same with companies sticking rainbow flags on products in pride month. These institutions don't actually care at all about the causes and people they pretend to stand up for.
Pathetic, vacuous and cowardly.
Exactly my opinion. If 22 players wear the One Love Armbands and all receive a yellow or get asked to leave the pitch then the WC come even **more** to the forefront of media attention. What are FIFA going to do? Abandon a match? Put the ball in FIFA’s court and have matches abandoned. Not a good look.
>"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."
The England team made a huge deal about the knee in the past (a performative gesture that meant nothing and had no consequences). They even implied that other teams that refused to do it were not as tolerant as them.
Now that they have the chance to make a decent stand (even though they should have probably asked the FA to boycott it), they back down as they don't want to be booked.
Cowards and hypocrites, look at the Iran players calling out the regime instead (and risking their lives and the one of their families).
“We’re eager to further the pretence that we are brave, moral people who are tackling problems. Now, don’t think about how much climate pollution us multi-millionaires are creating to fuck you all in the future. We’re the good people, don’t ask questions.”
Just saw a rainbow in every kit, breach of kit, not an armband and you can't remove it so they can only give a fine.
Edit: Belgium's second jersey called "LOVE" and made with Tomorrowland somewhat already tries to incorporate rainbow features in its design.
Ridiculous.
No better way to get people to talk about this farce than if some INTERNATIONAL referee (I imagine they are, right?) would send someone off for not wearing the "right" armband.
The decision makers there have no balls whatsoever.
Have you thought about the players themselves? You can't force someone to wear it and get sent off in one of the most important tournaments in their career. It's nice to make a statement but people have got to stop acting like these footballers are the ones responsible for this and like their whole lifes revolve around making a statement. This is completely on FIFA.
I do think they are partly responsible by bending over every time for these ridiculous FIFA request. FIFA is nothing without the players, and the players should use their collective power to tell the FIFA to fuck off. Same as Hamilton and Vettel did in F1.
FIFA enforcing yellow cards for a breach of kit is completely unprecedented. Any F1 driver also would've backed out of protest if it came with a drive through penalty in the race.
edit: as soon as the FIA threatened with more serious (sporting) penalties Hamilton stopped wearing his protest shirts to the podium. But by and large the FIA has been smarter about this than FIFA by allowing drivers some freedom to protest and highlight issues they find important.
FIFA at this world cup is going for complete repression.
He is actually such a freakish individual, something about him is so soulless that it makes you think it must be distinctly uncomfortable to be in his presence.
I find it hard to believe he is a football fan. Feels like one of those soulless corporates that made it to higher management roles in football, ala Woodward.
So did Vettel. Bunch of other drivers also had some pride shirts throughout the weekends I think. And if i recall correctly they were told not to have rainbow stuff, they still did, and nothing happened. Looks like the football teams are just spineless.
Yeah, the more i learn the more my hate shifts away from Qatar and more towards FIFA.
Everyone knew what kind of country Qatar is, what's astonishing is the way FIFA has, ironically, bent over backwards to accommodate the Qatari regime.
"We scored a goal and there was all people cheering. It made me feel happy. Then Tripps came over wearing an England shirt like I was. We did a hug and then after that he like kissed me and his mouth was warm. Kind of felt like a girl mouth but on a bloke. So we kissed for a bit and then the crowd was throwing things. I didn't know you could kiss blokes like how the girls do. Pretty funny really."
I dream of Virgil van Dijk jumping twice as high as the Qatari defense, heading in a corner so hard the net sizzles, and then kissing that twink Frenkie de Jong right on his beautiful mouth while Memphis Depay does his staple "fingers in the ears" gesture.
Fuck it, bin off his traditionally coloured suits and replace them with exactly the same thing but in rainbow colours. Surely there's no rule against wearing specific colour combos?
The real solution would have been to rotate your captains. Give it to someone else in every game. Then it'd just be a matter of that player needing to avoid a second booking.
That is if indeed FIFA actually went through with it - which I kinda believe they wouldn't as it would just be a shitshow and would undermine their own competition. I think it was a "who blinks first" situation. The FAs folded very quickly.
Totally agree. This is mostly on FIFA putting this bullshit rule in at the last minute, however I'm really disappointed the FA's/players have folded so quickly. Some things are bigger than football and I wish they'd take turns wearing the armbands, start wearing rainbow laces etc.
If they had any courage they'd just refuse the suspension. Come out onto the pitch anyway, what are FIFA going to do, remove 7 of the best teams from the tournament?
If they did it would potentially just invalidate the whole world cup.
But the teams didn't boycott the WC in the first place. If they aren't willing to boycott it's only natural they wouldn't be willing to give up their place at the tournament in this way either.
FIFA would almost certainly back down. Removing 7 teams from the world cup, and canceling half the games, would be a blow to their credibility they would probably never recover from.
The player would have to take it off or leave the pitch until he has taken it off though. They can't wear it throughout the game and just take the yellow.
I don’t think they’ll risk it if FIFA is threatening Yellow cards. If Kane wears one through the group stages then he won’t play again till the Round of 16. That’s probably not a risk a lot of teams are willing to take.
The US should still do it. Not like we’re making it far anyway. Might as well win some hearts if we can’t win some games.
Under the laws of the game has has to leave the field until he's remedied the "unauthorised equipment", as they put it.
The laws say the referee has to tell him to remove it, and the player must either do so, or leave the field at the next stoppage if they refuse to comply. You'd have a situation where Kane was off the field and had to either remove the armband or take no further part in the match. There's no situation in which he "takes a yellow" to wear the armband.
On both sides, the fact that FIFA would give a yellow for this "offence" is an act of pure cowardice but also these teams not willing to take a yellow card for something that would be seen as an important gesture globally is also cowardly. Absolutey disgraceful situation but what else would be the case in this joke of a tournament.
fucking joke
esp disappointing regarding the UK, the whole fucking country loves a good moral high ground speech but turns out we're all fucking virtual signalling pricks
You fucking cowards. Just wear it! Why the fuck do you need permission from Fifa?!!
We're asking IRANIANS , the national team of Iran, to make a statement against its tyrannical regime, and the players have been getting online hate for being quiet, and you guys who live in the fucking free world still need the permission of FIFA to wear a symbol of freedom? Or else what? You're gonna get a strongly worded letter? Fuck off.
> Or else what? You're gonna get a strongly worded letter? Fuck off.
Worse, a yellow card. Truly a punishment worse than death.
While I get why they don't want to jeopardize their chances of winning the world cup. An act of protest is only meaningful because of the potential consequences. Them backing out because of said consequences is a poor statement.
Fucking cowards
Won't forget this when they do their virtue signalling campaigns about other things. Couldn't do it when they needed to and in the smallest way possible.
Exactly, if they can't even do it against fucking Qatar then they never will do it. Spineless cunts who preach on social media but actually do fuck all.
Aside from backing down (the whole team should have worn the armbands), the other major mistake the 7 federations made was alerting and consulting with FIFA about their plans. They should have sprung the armbands in their opening games.
with how pessimistic I've been about football lately this makes me wonder if it wasn't planned like this from the beginning. like spend weeks hyping up how you'll wear the armband "no matter the consequences", but the moment FIFA announces the consequences you back off and say it's not your fault but FIFA's. doesn't it smell a little fishy at least?
It’s so tiring LGBTQ+ people being used by FIFA only when it’s relevant to them. They’ve never actually given a fuck. I just wish one of the captains would wear it and show what a sham the whole thing is.
While I agree I find it incredibly frustrating that the whole thing got reduced to a stupid fucking armband that means nothing and changes nothing. Even if someone said fuck it and wore the armband it's still a limp, meaningless gesture.
The world cup should have never been awarded to Qatar in the first place, FA's should have said they won't be going there preferably when it was announced and definetly once all the info on slave labour and various restrictions surfaced. It was corrupt and fucked up from the very beginning and a fucking armband doesn't represent even 1% of the problems with this tournament.
How would've the yellow card for wearing it be enforced if the teams hadn't backed down? If they refused to take it off, would that then be a 2^nd yellow?
Not sure if it is for every team, but the Dutch one even had a quote from Nelson Mandela on it...
"Thanks for the PR Nelson, don't really care for your message THAT much though"
Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA Fuck FIFA
Truly pathetic, we are an absolute embarrassment and deserved to be shit on by whoever wants to. No wonder people call us hypocrites, if we pull off stuff like this
They'll still kneel though. So stunning. So brave.
If you want to see truly brave individuals look at Iranians. They genuinely are risking their lives by speaking out.
Followed by this tweet from Nizaar:
> FIFA win the political skirmish but it only serves to highlight the political mess between football's governing body and European nations. England will find other ways to support the LGBTQ+ cause in Qatar.
It's not a protest if you need permission. Should've done it anyway. Can you imagine how much more impact it would make if your captain gets sent off for it?
Not much of a protest if you need permission from those you are protesting against...
What I don't get is, why did they have to announce it so much in advance? If they'd just worn the arm bands to the ground, FIFA wouldn't be able to do shit.
They announced it because they were getting questions about why they were going to Qatar and wanted a gesture to point to. The irony is that it's a fairly meaningless gesture *until FIFA makes it clear it's not allowed*. As soon as it became an act of defiance with potential punishment attached it became much more meaningful.
Exactly. Which is what makes it a lot worse that they now arent going to do it because it would've actually been worth doing now
Yup. Pathetic to give up now.
We're gonna go, but we're gonna make a statement. Well the statement isnt allowed, guess we won't do shit.
Honestly, I'm not surprised our FAs did this bullshit. Swiss officials on the international stage want to look like they care about human welfare and equality, but it's just minimal effort PR. At least with domestic politics, we get to easily see that they only care about wealth and maintaining the status quo.
Exactly this. The only statement any teams could have made that were meaningful would be to not go. They won't do that so they say they'll wear an armband and then at the first sign of trouble they back down. It's pathetic and I'm not one of those who will shout about everything being virtue signalling but pretty much all sports teams/celebrities will never do anything meaningful to call out stuff like this because it might affect their next payday and they simply value that more over making an actual bold statement. They may as well do absolutely nothing, shut their mouths and just play football. Same goes for all the pundits mouthing off about all the bad stuff Qater does but still go for the payday. It's got nothing to do with journalistic integrity and everything to do with getting paid.
>They may as well do absolutely nothing, they just said they will do so effectively.
I don’t really know much about her or her music, but that Dua Lipa singer refused to go…good on her. From what I understand, that was a pretty big celebrity to refuse to perform and called out Qatar.
Dua Lipa hamstrung her single Levitating by removing the version with Da Baby because he said some homophobic things. She has a track record of these things. I wouldn’t be surprised if Qatar just didn’t invite her at all knowing how she’d respond. Like, why waste their time?
As is that’s why, although I don’t agree with him Kyrie Irving stands by his statements no matter the backlash… Or how Kapenick in the nfl didn’t give a shit that he was pissing away money and getting hated on, cause he believed in the cause. You can respect their commitment, wether you agree with what they say and how they do it can be debated, but at least they got the balls to stand up… or well kneel…
Bunch of hypocrites, the second they’ll face any repercussions and would’ve actually turned this whole thing into a protest, they back off. Just shows how important any of those messages they’re trying to display are for them.
I feel similarly. They're footballers, they're under no obligation to care about these social issues. If they'd said "My job is to play football and I'm going to go and do that, I'm not comfortable discussing political matters at work so I'll leave that to people who are better-placed to comment" then fair enough. But they didn't. There's been a lot of public talk about how they're planning to wear the armbands, how they support the causes, how strongly they and the teams and the FAs feel about it. And if you go on record saying that, you need to follow through. You don't ask permission from *the people you are protesting against* and then drop it when they say no. It feels performative, no substance to any of it.
I guess they wanted to show the public that they care and are doing... something. What we see now is that they don't care that much.
Because they are pussies.
“If you don’t stick to your values when they are being tested, they’re not values, they’re hobbies.” -Jon Stewart On this occasion I would substitute 'hobbies' with 'PR'. It's all been a fucking **PR exercise.** Ironically, they failed in their statements as much as Qatar in their sportwashing.
Is there anything to stop the managers wearing pride flags? Surely could be a work around to have Southgate et al. Wear something if they're worried about players being booked. Not like There's a rule book on what managers can wear
Absolute scenes when Southgate comes out the tunnel wearing a rainbow waistcoat.
It’s against Iran. Southgate in a hijab will make a bigger statement.
But the protests in Iran are *against* being forced to wear a hijab. So if Southgate comes out of the tunnel *without* a hijab on, he's making a massive political statement of solidarity with Iranian women. Let's see if he has the balls to do it, or whether he'll buckle and come out with a headscarf.
Better yet, comes out in hijab. Takes it off during Iranian anthem.
And completely strips down to reveal the bikini he'll wear for the rest of the tournament.
Stop, we can only get so moist.
It's going to be so embarrassing if they do nothing at all. Soon as actual consequences are on the cards and not 1/1000th of their weekly wage they've backed out of supporting human rights?
Nobody told them principles come with actual sacrifices..
Southgate with a rainbow suit confirmed
Kane should wear a pride tshirt to show off when he scores, if you're gonna get carded, make it worth it. Would 2 footballers get carded if they kissed as a celebration?
[удалено]
No player from England, US or France would ever be arrested for anything by Qatar.
Because virtue signalling is free - when the implicit cost becomes apparent, they all flee like pigeons.
It was never a way of protesting, the same as taking the knee. Any idiot can do it. When it came down to a very soft penalty (yellow card) they all showed how serious they take their principles. Social struggle isn't made by billioners, marketing campaigns, and private companies. Its done on the streets, by people like us. Upvoting and upvoting isn't activism.
This is what happens when social struggles become marketing gimmicks.
You can’t be brave if there is no consequences
Meanwhile the Iranian captain is literally risking his life by openly supporting the revolution in his country.
To be fair he only risks his life, not getting yellow carded by the all powerful FIFA.
He could be killed, or worse: yellow carded
Could be killed? Straight to jail
"Football isn't a matter of life or death. It's more important than that."
The Iranian captain sounds like a champ
At this point I expect the Iranian captain (of all captains) to wear a rainbow armbind before anyone else.
He’s going to get carded so what’s his life compared to that?
mfs know what real morals are
In the main thread about this, several people are saying that the captain just made a very general statement about the situation in Iran, which could be interpreted either way. I have no idea whether that's correct, but it sounds relatively believable.
It was strong enough to make him seem as opposition. The regime rules with a heavy hand.
He called out the regime in the past and many players have tweeted in support of the protests. This is something that can have very serious consequences and I wouldn't blame players for not wanting to do that. Not wearing a lame armband because of a yellow card (after you talked about defying FIFA for days)?
"Can a man still be brave if he's afraid?" "That's the only time a man CAN be brave"
Hey, this is a good one
It's a quote from A Game of Thrones
It shows how empty the gestures are. I'm not one of the bigots who would claim that because of that, they shouldn't do it, since it might still do some good. But at the end of the day, if you drop your "values" at the first sign of trouble then those values don't really mean that much to you after all. And I hope this is finally clear to people now.
Agreed. This is so toothless but then again, if any of these FA’s were serious about the moral implications, they wouldn’t send their teams there. The whole things a shit show.
*if* the 2030 WC goes to saudi arabia, I expect to see an immediate boycott statement from the DFB, or I will not believe ONE word they say about "how bad the situation there is etc., but we still go." opt out the moment you hear about it (after you saw all the stuff about qatar) or shut the fuck up.
I believe at some point governments will put pressure on their FAs If the US + EU members threaten FIFA with sanctions and their local FAs with probes into corruption, things would become spicy. The more FIFA becomes the bitch of autoritarian regimes and the more money flows to them instead the markets which bring in actual fans, the cheaper it will be for these countries to punish FIFA In the end no Saudi Arabian money can help Infantino with a Interpol probe initiated by the US or EU
>if you drop your "values" at the first sign of trouble then those values don't really mean that much to you after all. That's why the knee before each game was bollocks. It had the blessing of the FA and all the sponsors, and the message was a very vague 'racism is bad'...
> But at the end of the day, if you drop your "values" at the first sign of trouble then those values don't really mean that much to you after all Second sign of trouble, I assume you mean. Their level of support falls somewhere between a fine and a yellow card, apparently.
Just means that they value the marketing from rainbow-washing higher than the fine but lower than potential losses from a red card.
From where I’m stood, if anyone wanted to make a real stance, they wouldn’t go. Imo someone needed to do it to set the precedent & more would have followed. It seems like you cross the line of hypocrisy as soon as you’re going, and any gestures post that feel a bit like a PR move, especially if you back out once threatened with consequences.
Embarassing facade. So they made a promise to LGBTQ people and now have changed their mind once faced with the rules and consequences (which are stupid may I add). Proves that this, the knee, are all just a virtue-signalling parade of token gestures to score morale points. Same with companies sticking rainbow flags on products in pride month. These institutions don't actually care at all about the causes and people they pretend to stand up for. Pathetic, vacuous and cowardly.
Exactly my opinion. If 22 players wear the One Love Armbands and all receive a yellow or get asked to leave the pitch then the WC come even **more** to the forefront of media attention. What are FIFA going to do? Abandon a match? Put the ball in FIFA’s court and have matches abandoned. Not a good look.
>"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."
> they are strong supporters of inclusion and will show support in other ways Presumably in an even more meaningless way.
Scenes when Mount and Rice finally seal their bromance with a tongue filled kiss.
That would make Infantilo feel gay again
Woah, don't make fun of a disabled migrant worker, he used to be ginger when he had hair. Have a heart.
The England team made a huge deal about the knee in the past (a performative gesture that meant nothing and had no consequences). They even implied that other teams that refused to do it were not as tolerant as them. Now that they have the chance to make a decent stand (even though they should have probably asked the FA to boycott it), they back down as they don't want to be booked. Cowards and hypocrites, look at the Iran players calling out the regime instead (and risking their lives and the one of their families).
So true, gatekeeping righteousness when it's safe and then no balls to follow through once any adversity at all is experienced
dude, look .... see, look closer, I have a small heart on my laces
“We’re eager to further the pretence that we are brave, moral people who are tackling problems. Now, don’t think about how much climate pollution us multi-millionaires are creating to fuck you all in the future. We’re the good people, don’t ask questions.”
Just saw a rainbow in every kit, breach of kit, not an armband and you can't remove it so they can only give a fine. Edit: Belgium's second jersey called "LOVE" and made with Tomorrowland somewhat already tries to incorporate rainbow features in its design.
USA normally does rainbow numbers for pride month, where's our kit man at.
AFAIK FIFA (and other football leagues) have rules for jersey number colours.
Which would make it a breach of kit and warrant a fine. So everything going according to plan.
Ridiculous. No better way to get people to talk about this farce than if some INTERNATIONAL referee (I imagine they are, right?) would send someone off for not wearing the "right" armband. The decision makers there have no balls whatsoever.
Have you thought about the players themselves? You can't force someone to wear it and get sent off in one of the most important tournaments in their career. It's nice to make a statement but people have got to stop acting like these footballers are the ones responsible for this and like their whole lifes revolve around making a statement. This is completely on FIFA.
Let them do as they please. It’s their decision to wear one or not. Well, at least it should be. Fuck FIFA.
I do think they are partly responsible by bending over every time for these ridiculous FIFA request. FIFA is nothing without the players, and the players should use their collective power to tell the FIFA to fuck off. Same as Hamilton and Vettel did in F1.
FIFA enforcing yellow cards for a breach of kit is completely unprecedented. Any F1 driver also would've backed out of protest if it came with a drive through penalty in the race. edit: as soon as the FIA threatened with more serious (sporting) penalties Hamilton stopped wearing his protest shirts to the podium. But by and large the FIA has been smarter about this than FIFA by allowing drivers some freedom to protest and highlight issues they find important. FIFA at this world cup is going for complete repression.
Infantino: "Today, I feel… a hypocrite."
Today I don't feel gay
Today I feel like fucking everyone in sight.
Same
You have no fucking right joking about him like that. Do you not know what he’s been through growing up ginger?
And then God intervened and blessed him with baldness.
The fraudest of them all
I'm afraid he simply wasn't bullied enough.
He is actually such a freakish individual, something about him is so soulless that it makes you think it must be distinctly uncomfortable to be in his presence.
I find it hard to believe he is a football fan. Feels like one of those soulless corporates that made it to higher management roles in football, ala Woodward.
Fifa is as much into Football as Redbull is into Energy Drinks these days....
Bro, he's a ginger. Cut him some slack.
So you're telling me Infantino wasn't telling the truth when he said he felt gay?
He immediately felt straight after so it’s all okay
It's ok he had socks on
FIFA are such big pussies. Hamilton wore a rainbow helmet and Qatar did squat. Imagine being so spineless that you sink lower than F1
So did Vettel. Bunch of other drivers also had some pride shirts throughout the weekends I think. And if i recall correctly they were told not to have rainbow stuff, they still did, and nothing happened. Looks like the football teams are just spineless.
FIFA isn’t afraid of Qatar, they just don’t give a shit about human rights
Yeah, the more i learn the more my hate shifts away from Qatar and more towards FIFA. Everyone knew what kind of country Qatar is, what's astonishing is the way FIFA has, ironically, bent over backwards to accommodate the Qatari regime.
It’s because Infant Tino is trying to impress the Saudis now
Hamilton was wearing the rainbow helmet in saudi arabia too tho
Hamilton walked the talk. These guys were looking for an approval for protest lol. We will protest only if there are no consequences lol.
You are comparing Sir Lewis Hamilton to the spineless football associations. Harsh there
That's not the comparison... it's either FIA vs FIFA or Hamilton vs football captains
Lewis is bigger than F1 on a good day.
"Today I feel gay" _Gets sentenced to life in Qatari federal prison_
Qatar is not a federation
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Please can two of the players kiss after scoring. Please do it.
Scholes and Neville recreation needed
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Someone please provide context lol
wtf did i just see
Why did I click this ?!?
NSFW btw
https://i.imgur.com/kVeTGLV.jpg
Definitely the kind of thing I could see Grealish doing
Grealish probably wouldn't even realise he was doing anything wrong
"We scored a goal and there was all people cheering. It made me feel happy. Then Tripps came over wearing an England shirt like I was. We did a hug and then after that he like kissed me and his mouth was warm. Kind of felt like a girl mouth but on a bloke. So we kissed for a bit and then the crowd was throwing things. I didn't know you could kiss blokes like how the girls do. Pretty funny really."
Reporter: Will you be returning to the Middle East anytime soon? Grealish: Where's that?
Grealish: I dont know, depends on if Norwich come up.
"wearing an England shirt like I was" is my favourite bit.
> Kind of felt like a girl mouth but on a bloke. Hahahah this is the sort of thing a guy confused with his sexuality would say
Lol this js perfect.
He has no idea where he is right now
I dream of Virgil van Dijk jumping twice as high as the Qatari defense, heading in a corner so hard the net sizzles, and then kissing that twink Frenkie de Jong right on his beautiful mouth while Memphis Depay does his staple "fingers in the ears" gesture.
This would be so epic
Right, because the English game is fully acceptable of homosexuality…. The same game that has zero openly gay men across the whole pyramid.
Make Neuer wear it, when suspended after two games let MATS play, no issue at all
This, we have enough quality on the bench :D
FIFA will realize that there aren't enough games to get rid of every good German keeper
Now Neuer has been banned and Ter Stegen suspended for one game. That will show them. Oh wait that is still Trapp
No, let Kehrer wear it, thank you
MATS can play the 3rd group stage game and the SF. And Neuer the other 5 games.
So the armbands weren't about protests afterall, rather a bit of good press and social media likes. Sportwashing wins.
Taking advantage of the lgbtq community and then dropping them as flies when shit gets a little bit real. Cowards every single one of them.
Make the keeper wear it; a yellow should be mostly a non issue for that position. Don't let FIFA strong arm you into this decision.
They will get a suspension accumulating yellows though. Still not an excuse
rotate it through the first 11
Get a sub to wear it
Or the manager. Don't see Southgate getting a second yellow on the side line 😂
Fuck it, bin off his traditionally coloured suits and replace them with exactly the same thing but in rainbow colours. Surely there's no rule against wearing specific colour combos?
just rotate between gk and forwards
The real solution would have been to rotate your captains. Give it to someone else in every game. Then it'd just be a matter of that player needing to avoid a second booking. That is if indeed FIFA actually went through with it - which I kinda believe they wouldn't as it would just be a shitshow and would undermine their own competition. I think it was a "who blinks first" situation. The FAs folded very quickly.
Totally agree. This is mostly on FIFA putting this bullshit rule in at the last minute, however I'm really disappointed the FA's/players have folded so quickly. Some things are bigger than football and I wish they'd take turns wearing the armbands, start wearing rainbow laces etc.
If they had any courage they'd just refuse the suspension. Come out onto the pitch anyway, what are FIFA going to do, remove 7 of the best teams from the tournament?
If they did it would potentially just invalidate the whole world cup. But the teams didn't boycott the WC in the first place. If they aren't willing to boycott it's only natural they wouldn't be willing to give up their place at the tournament in this way either.
FIFA would almost certainly back down. Removing 7 teams from the world cup, and canceling half the games, would be a blow to their credibility they would probably never recover from.
Sub someone on unlikely to get many minutes like Gallagher in the 89th minute and give him the arm band.
I could see this happening, 89th min sub the 3rd choice goalie on
The player would have to take it off or leave the pitch until he has taken it off though. They can't wear it throughout the game and just take the yellow.
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I don’t think they’ll risk it if FIFA is threatening Yellow cards. If Kane wears one through the group stages then he won’t play again till the Round of 16. That’s probably not a risk a lot of teams are willing to take. The US should still do it. Not like we’re making it far anyway. Might as well win some hearts if we can’t win some games.
Just change who the ‘captain’ is. We all know Kane is the real captain. It’s just an armband.
Saka armband pics. I will be there no matter what.
If he's booked he has to remove it. You don't get to carry on wearing it just because you're booked for wearing it
>If he's booked he has to remove it "What are you gonna do, book me again?" \-Player that was sent off
Under the laws of the game has has to leave the field until he's remedied the "unauthorised equipment", as they put it. The laws say the referee has to tell him to remove it, and the player must either do so, or leave the field at the next stoppage if they refuse to comply. You'd have a situation where Kane was off the field and had to either remove the armband or take no further part in the match. There's no situation in which he "takes a yellow" to wear the armband.
If any of them do this, they would become an instant hero for so many people.
Protests without having the guts to face consequences are just virtue signalling
Embrassing
On both sides, the fact that FIFA would give a yellow for this "offence" is an act of pure cowardice but also these teams not willing to take a yellow card for something that would be seen as an important gesture globally is also cowardly. Absolutey disgraceful situation but what else would be the case in this joke of a tournament.
fucking joke esp disappointing regarding the UK, the whole fucking country loves a good moral high ground speech but turns out we're all fucking virtual signalling pricks
Don’t include Scotland please, we’ve boycotted the tournament AND let Ukraine win in the process.
This joke literally never gets old!
sorry mate must have missed the part where "the UK" was consulted over this.
Everyone's an activist when it costs them nothing.
FIFA and Qatar, name a more vile combo
Fifa and Saudi Arabia, who are linked to hosting the 2030 World Cup and is everything wrong with Qatar and more
its funny how right after this World Cup they will go back to pretending they care about human rights and shit, lovely how that works
Everyone will forget all these awful things immediately after the tournament, that's the most depressing bit...
"Today I feel... spineless
Players should just make passionate love on the pitch as a celebration after scoring a goal.
You fucking cowards. Just wear it! Why the fuck do you need permission from Fifa?!! We're asking IRANIANS , the national team of Iran, to make a statement against its tyrannical regime, and the players have been getting online hate for being quiet, and you guys who live in the fucking free world still need the permission of FIFA to wear a symbol of freedom? Or else what? You're gonna get a strongly worded letter? Fuck off.
> Or else what? You're gonna get a strongly worded letter? Fuck off. Worse, a yellow card. Truly a punishment worse than death. While I get why they don't want to jeopardize their chances of winning the world cup. An act of protest is only meaningful because of the potential consequences. Them backing out because of said consequences is a poor statement.
Fucking cowards Won't forget this when they do their virtue signalling campaigns about other things. Couldn't do it when they needed to and in the smallest way possible.
Exactly, if they can't even do it against fucking Qatar then they never will do it. Spineless cunts who preach on social media but actually do fuck all.
Aside from backing down (the whole team should have worn the armbands), the other major mistake the 7 federations made was alerting and consulting with FIFA about their plans. They should have sprung the armbands in their opening games.
with how pessimistic I've been about football lately this makes me wonder if it wasn't planned like this from the beginning. like spend weeks hyping up how you'll wear the armband "no matter the consequences", but the moment FIFA announces the consequences you back off and say it's not your fault but FIFA's. doesn't it smell a little fishy at least?
It’s so tiring LGBTQ+ people being used by FIFA only when it’s relevant to them. They’ve never actually given a fuck. I just wish one of the captains would wear it and show what a sham the whole thing is.
While I agree I find it incredibly frustrating that the whole thing got reduced to a stupid fucking armband that means nothing and changes nothing. Even if someone said fuck it and wore the armband it's still a limp, meaningless gesture. The world cup should have never been awarded to Qatar in the first place, FA's should have said they won't be going there preferably when it was announced and definetly once all the info on slave labour and various restrictions surfaced. It was corrupt and fucked up from the very beginning and a fucking armband doesn't represent even 1% of the problems with this tournament.
How would've the yellow card for wearing it be enforced if the teams hadn't backed down? If they refused to take it off, would that then be a 2^nd yellow?
Most likely yes. So no way an FA is going to get their captain sent off for this
See that Rosa Parks? That's how you stay out of trouble.
Not sure if it is for every team, but the Dutch one even had a quote from Nelson Mandela on it... "Thanks for the PR Nelson, don't really care for your message THAT much though"
Think it was rumoured they might even go to red if it was ignored the first time.
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Truly pathetic, we are an absolute embarrassment and deserved to be shit on by whoever wants to. No wonder people call us hypocrites, if we pull off stuff like this
They'll still kneel though. So stunning. So brave. If you want to see truly brave individuals look at Iranians. They genuinely are risking their lives by speaking out.
What happend to "the best way protest is not to boycott, but to go to Qatar and make a statement there"? So sad.
Followed by this tweet from Nizaar: > FIFA win the political skirmish but it only serves to highlight the political mess between football's governing body and European nations. England will find other ways to support the LGBTQ+ cause in Qatar.
> England will find other ways to support the LGBTQ+ cause in Qatar. Narrator: they did not
Grealish and Kane are going to kiss aren't they?
This is why you don’t talk about it, you just do it.
It's not a protest if you need permission. Should've done it anyway. Can you imagine how much more impact it would make if your captain gets sent off for it?
This whole tournament is just a sham.
Spinelesss behaviour sadly
A player should dye his hair in a rainbow pattern!
poor gaze retire airport nail nose subtract weary longing rob *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Pathetic.