England’s football team to wear poppies armband despite FIFA’s refusal

Despite FIFA’s refusal of the suggestion of both Scottish and English football teams to wear armbands featuring poppies on their face-to-face game to be held on Armistice/Remembrance Day, our allied country has decided to go ahead with its suggestion, no matter what, and possibly face consequences.

Scottish Football Association’s chief, Stewart Regan, says FIFA, which has banned political, religious or commercial messages on shirts, is “sticking to the letter of the law.”

The Federation has not indicated what the consequences of the teams going against the decision could be. Some believe a point penalty may be a possibility. Chief executive Martin Glenn will be meeting with FIFA officials on Thursday to discuss the issue.

“We will be asking for their support to try to give the people of England and Scotland what they want,” Regan told BBC Radio 5 live. “That is to use this match of a way of remembering people who lost their lives in the war.

“I can understand why they are doing this, but it is nothing more than a mark of respect. It is a personal choice. This is not about making some political point.”

The chair of the Commons’ Culture, Media and Sport select committee, Damian Collins, has also written to the sport’s governing body’s president, Gianni Infantino, to ask that he reconsider his decision.

Meanwhile, Soccer Canada will mark Remembrance Day with a moment of silence during its morning training session, which will be held in the Republic of Korea, on November 11th. Although the team has worn black armed bans and observed minutes of silence prior to games in the past, it is believed it would be inappropriate to do so or mark in a foreign country that recognized its war victims at an earlier date than done here in Canada.

Check out CMF Magazine’s holiday issue where we feature an article on poppies from around the world.