FIFA Banned Players’ LGBTQ+ Solidarity Symbols at the World Cup
, multiple European teams have walked back plans to wear rainbow armbands during the global soccer competition.The teams representing England, Wales, Germany, Denmark, Belgium, Switzerland, and the Netherlands announced that they would no longer wear the OneLove armbands for “diversity and inclusion” shortly before their campaigns were scheduled to start on Monday, per . The gesture, small as it may seem, speaks volumes in Qatar, which has since it was chosen to host the back in 2010, due to its harsh criminalization of homosexuality and mass exploitation of migrant workers. Although the teams said that they would be willing to accept a fine, FIFA told them just hours beforehand that any player wearing an armband would receive a yellow card, per .