England and Wales were among seven European teams to abandon plans to wear the armband.©AFP
Britain’s sports minister, Stuart Andrew, will wear the rainbow-colored armband that FIFA banned players from wearing at the World Cup when he attends Tuesday’s England v Wales game in Qatar. England and Wales were among seven European teams to abandon plans to wear the anti-discrimination symbol after being threatened with sporting sanctions by world football’s governing body. German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser wore the “OneLove” armband as she sat next to FIFA President Gianni Infantino ahead of Germany’s shock 2-1 defeat to Japan.
Homosexuality is illegal in Qatar and there were multiple reports of fans having rainbow colored items seized by security during the first round of play.
“I will definitely be wearing the ‘OneLove’ bracelet,” Andrew, who is gay, told ITV News. “I want to show my support and I was delighted to see the German minister who attended a recent match wearing it, I think it’s important that I do that.
“And I think it has been very unfair to the England and Wales team that they were stopped by FIFA at the 11th hour from doing it.”
The English fan group “3LionsPride”, representing the LGBTQ community, said ahead of the tournament that their members would not be traveling to Qatar for the tournament. “These games should be a festive show for all football fans to enjoy. Unfortunately, many of them feel that this is not the case,” added Andrew.
“This is not a tournament for them. I met LGBT football supporters and it was really distressing to see how emotional they got that they couldn’t be.
“They didn’t feel like they could be a part of this and that’s unacceptable.”
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