The captains of England, Wales, Belgium, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands will not wear the OneLove anti-discrimination armband in their World Cup opening games after confirmation that their captains would be given yellow cards if they took part in the initiative.
The announcement came just before their World Cup campaigns were scheduled to start. The national federations said they were prepared to pay a fine for their captains to wear the OneLove armband, but once it became clear their captains would be sanctioned, they had to change plans.
“FIFA has been very clear that it will impose sporting sanctions if our captains wear the armbands on the field of play,” a joint statement from the nations read. “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.”
Amazing what happens when the seemingly-irresistible force of woke Western virtue-signaling meets the immovable object of a non-Western culture impervious to guilt-tripping.
November 22, 2022 @ 5:24 am
They are not willing to pay the price of a yellow card — evidently, their beliefs are only for show. “In proportion as a good deed is more brilliant, I deduct from its goodness the suspicion I have that it was performed more to be brilliant than to be good: put on display, it is half sold.” Montaigne (Donald Frame)
November 22, 2022 @ 7:45 pm
I like how the Dutch were forthright about it: “Sure, we’d like to wear the armbands, but we’re here to win our games, so we’re not going to risk our captain getting a suspension.”