“Today I feel Qatari, today I feel Arab, today I feel African, today I feel disabled, today I feel gay, today I feel migrant worker.” The speech that Gianni Infantino, president of FIFA, gave hours before the start of the World Cup and that he intended to pass down to posterity as a speech with reminiscences of Kennedy already sounded cynical live but with the episode of the bracelet experienced in the World Cup in Qatar it is gone straight into the trash. England, the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland and Wales, the seven European teams that had announced that their captains would carry the One Love motto on their arms over a rainbow flag typical of the LGTBi movement, wrote a joint statement to announce to the world that they back off: “As national federations, we cannot put our players in a position where they can face sporting sanctions, including booking, so we have asked captains not to attempt to wear armbands on matches of the FIFA World Cup”.
What are the federations of these countries afraid of? Well, that the referee on duty, protected by the literalness of the rule, draws a yellow card to his captain in minute one with the risk of admonishing him with a second (expulsion, therefore) if he persists in taking it. What is prohibited by regulation? “Make any political gesture within the framework of the competition.” Is it a “political gesture” to defend the right of people to love each other freely without distinction of gender? In Qatar, the host country of the World Cup, yes, since homosexuality is prohibited and penalized. Conclusion: the world advances and football goes backwards.
The fear of player sanctions therefore deactivates a claim that is actually quite harmless. Elite football, the federations and their footballers in this case, renounce any form of activism, however timid it may be (it was never a particularly generous union in this area), for fear of the consequences. “The regulations are the same for everyone,” say FIFA sources.
It should be noted that Spain and Portugal were never part of this group of seven European teams, while Hugo Lloris, captain of the French team, stood out a few days ago from wearing a special bracelet: “I prefer to stay in my role as a player. It is clear that there are causes that must be supported. But it is FIFA who decides”.
The first of the players to wear the bracelet in this World Cup was going to be Harry Kane in the match between England and Iran. The English captain was exposing himself to receiving a yellow card and a possible financial sanction that the federation on duty usually pays. “We were prepared to pay the fines that would normally apply for rule infractions and we had a firm commitment to wear the bracelet. However, we cannot put our players in a situation where they can be reprimanded or even forced to leave the field of play”, the seven teams that signed the last statement insisted in the letter. “We are frustrated by FIFA’s decision,” they added. Both the players and the coaches are “disappointed” as they “are strong supporters of inclusion and will show their support in other ways.”
In the morning, minutes before the decision was announced, Kasper Hjulmand, the coach of Denmark, the country that has most positioned itself against holding the World Cup in Qatar, was resigned: “It’s not something we invented just for this World Cup . Our captain already wore the armband in previous games and nothing happened. On the bracelet it says ‘One love’. I don’t understand where the problem is.”
