Al-Marsad Newspaper: The English Football Association revealed that FIFA has threatened to impose penalties on players who wear the “One Love” rainbow badge in support of gays in the Qatar World Cup matches.
FA chief executive Mark Bullingham said his body had expected FIFA to actually threaten to ban the players. According to “AFP”.
Bullingham said in an interview with “ITV Sport”, that the penalties were “unlimited. They will take disciplinary action against any player who was wearing the armband in addition to receiving a yellow card.”
He continued, “We had a lot of meetings with FIFA during that period, and on Saturday before the match we felt that we had reached an understanding about that. We did not get permission but (we were ready) to face a fine.”
“Unfortunately after that, on the day of the match, they told us two hours before we were scheduled to go to the match. They came here with five officials and confronted us with a scenario where any player wearing the armband would receive at least a yellow card and on top of that face disciplinary action.”
And 7 European teams, including England, announced last Monday that they had abandoned their plans to wear a badge bearing the rainbow logo in the Qatar World Cup matches, following threats from the International Federation of Football Associations (FIFA) of disciplinary measures.