{"id":244939,"date":"2022-11-24T09:00:01","date_gmt":"2022-11-24T15:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=244939"},"modified":"2022-11-24T10:18:34","modified_gmt":"2022-11-24T16:18:34","slug":"fifa-threatened-massive-sporting-sanctions-over-lgbt-armbands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/fifa-threatened-massive-sporting-sanctions-over-lgbt-armbands\/","title":{"rendered":"FIFA Threatened \u2018Massive Sporting Sanctions’ in Row Over LGBT Armbands"},"content":{"rendered":"

FIFA threatened the England soccer team<\/a> with \u201cmassive sporting sanctions\u201d ahead of its opening game against Iran on Monday if any of its players wore “OneLove” armbands, as planned.<\/p>\n

\"FIFA\"
Harry Kane\u2019s arm sporting the OneLove armband during a game against Italy in September. (Image: Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Seven soccer federations, from England, Wales, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany and Denmark, had agreed their teams would sport the rainbow bands to protest against the treatment of LGBT people in Qatar, where homosexuality is illegal.<\/p>\n

As the first of these nations to take the field at the World Cup, England\u2019s captain Harry Kane was expected to wear the armband. Instead, he wore a band backing FIFA\u2019s own \u201cNo Discrimination\u201d campaign.<\/p>\n

The only team making any kind of demonstration was Iran, whose players refused to sing the national anthem. This was in solidarity with the women-led protests that erupted in the country after the death in police custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini\u00a0in September.<\/p>\n

\u2018Extreme Blackmail\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n

FIFA\u2019s threats were revealed by the German Football Association\u2019s (DFB) media director Steffen Simon in an interview on Deutschlandfunk radio. Simon said that the DFB and other football associations had decided to pull the armbands \u201cin solidarity\u201d with the English team. He described FIFA\u2019s actions as \u201cextreme blackmail.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe tournament director went to the English team and talked about multiple rule violations and threatened [it] with massive sporting sanctions without specifying what these would be,” he said.<\/p>\n

We lost the armband, and it is very painful, but we are the same people as before with the same values. We are not impostors who claim they have values and then betray them,” <\/strong>he said. “I can understand the disappointment. We had the choice between the plague and cholera.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Kane was criticized at home for capitulating too easily. But at the time, it was understood that a player would simply receive a yellow card for wearing the armband, rather than \u201cmassive,\u201d albeit unspecified, sanctions.<\/p>\n

The English Football Association (FA) has not commented on the matter. But the DFB said in a statement to Reuters that it was \u201cin fundamental opposition with FIFA.”<\/p>\n

Western \u2018Hypocrisy\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n

German players chose to cover their mouths during the team photo before their first game against Japan<\/a> on Wednesday in protest against FIFA\u2019s armband ban. Meanwhile, Germany’s interior minister, Nancy Faeser,\u00a0wore the OneLove armband as she sat beside FIFA president Gianni Infantino watching the game.<\/p>\n

On the eve of the World Cup, Infantino accused the Western world of “hypocrisy” and of delivering a “one-sided moral lesson” in its reporting about Qatar’s human rights record.<\/p>\n

Article 4 of FIFA\u2019s own statutes state: \u201cDiscrimination of any kind against a country, private person or group of people on account of race, ethnic, national or social origin, gender, disability, religion, political opinion or wealth, birth or sexual orientation is strictly prohibited.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FIFA threatened the England soccer team with \u201cmassive sporting sanctions\u201d ahead of its opening game against Iran on Monday if any of its players wore “OneLove” armbands, as planned. Seven soccer federations, from England, Wales, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany and Denmark, had agreed their teams would sport the rainbow bands to protest against the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":244940,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[61,82966,16],"tags":[83135,83880,83881],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFIFA Threatened \u2018Massive Sporting Sanctions' in Row Over LGBT Armbands - Casino.org<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"FIFA threatened the England soccer team with \u201cmassive sporting sanctions\u201d ahead of its opening game against Iran on Monday if any of its players wore\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"FIFA Threatened \u2018Massive Sporting Sanctions' in Row Over LGBT Armbands - Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"FIFA threatened the England soccer team with \u201cmassive sporting sanctions\u201d ahead of its opening game against Iran on Monday if any of its players wore\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/fifa-threatened-massive-sporting-sanctions-over-lgbt-armbands\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-11-24T15:00:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-11-24T16:18:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Kane.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"801\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/fifa-threatened-massive-sporting-sanctions-over-lgbt-armbands\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/fifa-threatened-massive-sporting-sanctions-over-lgbt-armbands\/\",\"name\":\"FIFA Threatened \u2018Massive Sporting Sanctions' in Row Over LGBT Armbands - Casino.org\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/fifa-threatened-massive-sporting-sanctions-over-lgbt-armbands\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/fifa-threatened-massive-sporting-sanctions-over-lgbt-armbands\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Kane.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-11-24T15:00:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-11-24T16:18:34+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"FIFA threatened the England soccer team with \u201cmassive sporting sanctions\u201d ahead of its opening game against Iran on Monday if any of its players wore\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/fifa-threatened-massive-sporting-sanctions-over-lgbt-armbands\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/fifa-threatened-massive-sporting-sanctions-over-lgbt-armbands\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/fifa-threatened-massive-sporting-sanctions-over-lgbt-armbands\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Kane.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Kane.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":801,\"caption\":\"Harry Kane\u2019s arm sporting the OneLove armband during a game against Italy in September. (Image: Getty)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/fifa-threatened-massive-sporting-sanctions-over-lgbt-armbands\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Sports Betting\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sportsbetting\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Sports\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sportsbetting\/sports\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"FIFA Threatened \u2018Massive Sporting Sanctions’ in Row Over LGBT Armbands\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"description\":\"Latest Casino and Gaming News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\",\"name\":\"Philip Conneller\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Philip Conneller\"},\"description\":\"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"FIFA Threatened \u2018Massive Sporting Sanctions' in Row Over LGBT Armbands - Casino.org","description":"FIFA threatened the England soccer team with \u201cmassive sporting sanctions\u201d ahead of its opening game against Iran on Monday if any of its players wore","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"FIFA Threatened \u2018Massive Sporting Sanctions' in Row Over LGBT Armbands - Casino.org","og_description":"FIFA threatened the England soccer team with \u201cmassive sporting sanctions\u201d ahead of its opening game against Iran on Monday if any of its players wore","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/fifa-threatened-massive-sporting-sanctions-over-lgbt-armbands\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2022-11-24T15:00:01+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-11-24T16:18:34+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":801,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Kane.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Philip Conneller","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@casinoorgphilc","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Philip Conneller","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/fifa-threatened-massive-sporting-sanctions-over-lgbt-armbands\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/fifa-threatened-massive-sporting-sanctions-over-lgbt-armbands\/","name":"FIFA Threatened \u2018Massive Sporting Sanctions' in Row Over LGBT Armbands - Casino.org","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/fifa-threatened-massive-sporting-sanctions-over-lgbt-armbands\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/fifa-threatened-massive-sporting-sanctions-over-lgbt-armbands\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Kane.jpg","datePublished":"2022-11-24T15:00:01+00:00","dateModified":"2022-11-24T16:18:34+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b"},"description":"FIFA threatened the England soccer team with \u201cmassive sporting sanctions\u201d ahead of its opening game against Iran on Monday if any of its players wore","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/fifa-threatened-massive-sporting-sanctions-over-lgbt-armbands\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/fifa-threatened-massive-sporting-sanctions-over-lgbt-armbands\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/fifa-threatened-massive-sporting-sanctions-over-lgbt-armbands\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Kane.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Kane.jpg","width":1200,"height":801,"caption":"Harry Kane\u2019s arm sporting the OneLove armband during a game against Italy in September. (Image: Getty)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/fifa-threatened-massive-sporting-sanctions-over-lgbt-armbands\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Sports Betting","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sportsbetting\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Sports","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sportsbetting\/sports\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"FIFA Threatened \u2018Massive Sporting Sanctions’ in Row Over LGBT Armbands"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b","name":"Philip Conneller","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","caption":"Philip Conneller"},"description":"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.","sameAs":["https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk","https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc"],"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244939"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}