The Football Association CEO has explained why the decision was made for England players to not wear One Love armbands in their opening World Cup match.
England captain Harry Kane had planned to wear the armband during the match against Iran as a show of support for the LGBT community.
LGBT rights are severely limited in Qatar, and same-sex attracted people can be subjected to upwards of seven years in prison.
However, this did not happen as FIFA said they would impose "sporting sanctions" on those who did wear one, with the threat of an immediate booking to any player right at the start of a match.
Kane instead wore a black and yellow one reading "No Discrimination" whilst BBC pundit and former woman's England team captain, Alex Scott wore the armband in her coverage of the game.
Many fans were outraged at the backtrack, with one saying there were "ashamed" at them not being able to follow through on it.
FA CEO explains why One Love decision was made
The FA CEO Mark Bullingham told ITV that they felt "an understanding" had been reached with FIFA where the One Love armband would be allowed but circumstances changed at short notice.
READ MORE: Fans outraged as England don't wear One Love armbands
He said: “It’s very important to understand what happened here. We have been clear that we wanted to wear it and we were committed. We announced that we would do that in September, we had a lot of meetings with FIFA over that period and on Saturday before the game we felt we’d reached an understanding where we would wear it. We hadn’t got permission but we would face a fine for it.
“Unfortunately then on the day of the game they gave us 10 minutes’ notice – two hours before we were due to go to the game…they came here with five officials and they ran us through a scenario where at a minimum anyone wearing the armband would be booked and face disciplinary action on top of that.
“It was unlimited. They would take disciplinary action against any player that was wearing the armband on top of having a yellow card.”
Bullingham said the FA took that to mean players could face bans from further games if the bands were worn, not just a yellow card.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel