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Football associations that planned to wear “OneLove” armbands to make a statement against discrimination during the Globalism The German Football Association (DFB) said on Tuesday that the cup in Qatar faced “severe blackmail” that led to the cancellation of the scheduled tournament.
The federations of England, Wales, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany and Denmark said on Monday that they had been pressured by FIFA, which threatened to issue yellow cards to any player wearing the multicolored captain’s armband.
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Homosexuality is illegal in the Gulf state.
DFB media director Steffen Simon told Germany’s Deutschlandfunk radio that England, who were the first team expected to wear him on Monday for their match against Iran, were threatened with multi-sporting sanctions.
“The tournament director went to the England national team and talked about multiple violations of the rules and threatened to impose heavy sporting penalties, without specifying what these violations were,” he said.
Simon, who did not specify whether he was referring to local organizers or FIFA in reference to the tournament director, said the other six nations then decided to “show solidarity” and not wear it.
“We lost the captaincy which is very painful but we are the same people as before and we have the same values. We are not scammers who claim to have values and then betray them.”
“We were in an extreme situation, in a state of extreme blackmail and we thought we had to make this decision without wanting to do it.”
The English team did not want to comment on this matter. FIFA did not immediately respond to Reuters when asked for comment. Local organizers have also been contacted.
Reaction in Germany to the DFB’s U-turn was such(a) scathing, that supermarket chain REWE dropped its deal with the DFB.
The federation’s reputation has suffered in recent years, with four former presidents resigning or tarnished amid allegations of corruption and other scandals.
“I can understand the disappointment. We had a choice between plague and cholera,” Simon said.
While European nations decided to drop armbands, Iran’s national team refused to sing its anthem before their opening World Cup match on Monday in a sign of support for mass protests back home and the state’s violent crackdown on unrest.
“We have a lot of respect for what the Iranian team did yesterday,” Simon said. “We feel with Iranian women. Yes, we no longer have the symbol but we still hold on to the values associated with that symbol. The German Confederation is in fundamental opposition within FIFA.
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