FIFA to take 'disciplinary actions' against players wearing 'OneLove' arm bands during Qatar World Cup 2022

Mark Bullingham (Source: Twitter)

The FIFA World Cup 2022 has gotten off to a wonderful start with football being played at the highest calibre. The matches have come thick and fast and have been high-octane. While the fans in Qatar have been treated to some wonderful games, the World Cup has been marred by controversies.

The one that has taken a lot of attention has been the rainbow-themed armband controversy, journalists and fans were prohibited from wearing rainbow bucket hats and those who wore the hats were forbidden to wear them and also were not allowed to enter the venue. The European nations wanted to wear an armband to encourage diversity.

But the idea was shelved as FIFA threatened countries such as England, Wales, Belgium, Denmark and Germany. This was in response to the strict laws on homosexuality which is illegal in Qatar. Football Association chief executive Mark Bullingham said that the association was putting pressure and wanted to ban players.

The officials said that disciplinary would be taken if the armband was worn.

"It was unlimited. They would take disciplinary action against any player that was wearing the armband on top of having a yellow card," he told ITV Sport.

"We had a lot of meetings with FIFA over that period and on Saturday before the game we felt we'd reached an understanding where we would wear it,'' Bullingham added. "We hadn't got permission but we would face a fine for it.

"Unfortunately then, on the day of the game, they gave us 10 minutes' notice -- two hours before we were due to go to the game.

"They came here with five officials and they ran us through a scenario where, at a minimum, anyone wearing the armband would be booked and face disciplinary action on top of that."

The German players put up a protest ahead of their match against Japan by placing their hands over their mouths. They did this in protest to FIFA’s strict stand on the armband and said that it will launch an enquiry into whether the threat to penalise the players for putting on the armband is legal.