There won’t be any controversies over armbands at this World Cup.
FIFA unveiled eight armbands Friday that team captains can wear at next month’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. One is similar, both in its heart design and colors, to the “OneLove” rainbow armband FIFA forbid European teams from wearing during last year’s men’s tournament in Qatar.
“(The World Cup) can shine the spotlight on very important causes in our society,” FIFA president Gianni Infantino said in making the announcement. “After some very open talks with stakeholders, including member associations and players, we have decided to highlight a series of social causes — from inclusion to gender equality, from peace to ending hunger, from education to tackling domestic violence — during all 64 matches.”
That’s a much different tone than Infantino and FIFA took last fall, when it refused to allow European teams to wear an armband in support of the LGBTQ community during the World Cup out of fear it would offend the Qatari hosts. It even threatened the European captains with yellow cards if they wore the “OneLove” armband.
The European teams backed down, but the furor persisted. Several of Germany’s players wore boots with rainbow stripes on them, and the starters posed with their hands over their mouths for the official photo before their first group-stage game. Several politicians wore the armband or rainbow-hued clothing, including Denmark’s former prime minister, who wore a dress with rainbow sleeves as she sat next to Infantino for a game.
“It wasn’t about making a political statement — human rights are non-negotiable,” the German team said in a statement accompanying its team photo, in which all the players covered their mouths with their hands. “That’s why this message is so important to us.
“Denying us the armband is the same as denying us a voice. We stand by our position.”
But FIFA never was likely to make a similar mistake with this year’s World Cup. Homosexuality is not illegal in Australia or New Zealand, as it is in Qatar. Nor does FIFA feel the need to kowtow to this year’s hosts as it did to Qatar’s ruling family, which spent billions on the tournament and has spent billions more on the global game.
More importantly, unlike in the men’s tournament, where there were no openly gay players, some of the biggest stars at this World Cup are LGBTQ. They include the USWNT’s Megan Rapinoe, Australia’s Sam Kerr and Spain’s Alexia Putellas, the two-time reigning world player of the year. There was no way those players, or their teammates, would have stood for anything that endorsed discrimination, yellow cards be damned.
FIFA said it worked with both players and the 32 federations that qualified for the World Cup, as well as the United Nations, to come up with suitable messages for the captain’s armbands. In addition to the inclusion armband, there are armbands to highlight the rights of indigenous people, violence against women, gender equality and education for all.
FIFA also will promote the messages on the LED boards that ring the field and stadium scoreboards.
All 8 armbands, causes approved by FIFA for 2023 World Cup
- Unite for Inclusion – in partnership with UN Human Rights
- Unite for Indigenous Peoples – in partnership with UN Human Rights
- Unite for Gender Equality – in partnership with UN Women
- Unite for Peace – in partnership with UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency
- Unite for Education for All – in partnership with the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
- Unite for Zero Hunger – in partnership with the UN World Food Programme
- Unite for Ending Violence Against Women – in partnership with UN Women
- Football is Joy, Peace, Love, Hope & Passion – in partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO)
