Discussions with FIFA
Soccer players at the World Cup probably with rainbow armbands
Alexandra Popp wears a captain’s armband in rainbow colors. photo
© Hendrik Schmidt/dpa
The men were not allowed to wear the rainbow armband, and the One Love armband was too much for the World Football Association. It could now work for the women at their World Cup.
The head of the Australian Football Association is optimistic that players will be allowed to wear rainbow armbands at the Women’s World Cup.
After “very good and significant” talks with the world governing body FIFA, James Johnson said he was “quite confident” in this regard in an interview with the British Sunday newspaper “Observer”. He expects that there will be a solution before the World Cup finals from July 20th to August 20th in Australia and New Zealand.
“We are in the middle of this process and we are quite confident and optimistic that we will find a good solution in the end. A solution where the players have the opportunity to express themselves in certain areas, which makes the players happy, that makes the host country happy and also makes FIFA happy,” said Johnson.
When asked directly if he expected the players to wear rainbow armbands at the tournament, he replied: “I think they will, yes.”
Dispute at the World Cup in Qatar
At the men’s World Cup in Qatar, there was a major controversy over the rainbow armband, which FIFA had banned. As a consequence of the quarrels about the One Love bandage, the German men’s selection returned to the black, red and gold bandage.
The world association then announced that it would enter into dialogue with the associations. Recently there had been some confusion in the debate about the symbolic captain’s armbands. FIFA had declared at a workshop that no other armband would be allowed at the Women’s World Cup than the official FIFA captain’s armband. That’s why DFB captain Alexandra Popp will only wear the symbolic rainbow tie in friendlies in the future, according to the DFB side.
The world association emphasized shortly afterwards that no decision had yet been made. “I know that the players want to continue wearing the rainbow armband at our international matches,” said national coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg.