Alex Scott MBE, former Arsenal & England player does what football captains dare not in Qatar

Alex Scott MBE, former Arsenal & England player does what football captains dare not ‘One Love’ By Michelle

BBC presenter Alex Scott MBE wore the One Love armband while reporting pitch-side at the World Cup in Qatar today.

Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer, Rio Ferdinand and Micah Richards were in the studio for the coverage of England’s opening match against Iran, which ended in a 6-2 victory for England, while Kelly Somers and Scott were on the pitch at the Khalifa International Stadium.

England and Wales said their captains would not wear One Love armbands at the Qatar World Cup because they could face an instant yellow card if they did.

England’s Harry Kane and Wales’ Gareth Bale were among players from a number of European national teams that had planned to wear the armbands in support of the LGBT community, Qatar being a country where homosexuality is punishable with imprisonment.

Sky News: FIFA has been very clear that it will impose sporting sanctions if our captains wear the armbands on the field of play, a joint statement from the Football Associations of England, Wales, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, The Netherlands and Switzerland said.

As national federations, we can’t put our players in a position where they could face sporting sanctions including bookings, so we have asked the captains not to attempt to wear the armbands in FIFA World Cup games.

The teams said they were prepared to pay fines that would normally apply to breaches of kit regulations but cannot put our players in the situation where they might be booked or even forced to leave the field of play.

We are very frustrated by the FIFA decision which we believe is unprecedented – we wrote to FIFA in September informing them of our wish to wear the OneLove armband to actively support inclusion in football, and had no response, the statement added.

Should a World Cup be handed out solely on the basis of money and infrastructure?

Surely no country which falls so far short on LGBTQ+ rights, women’s rights, workers’ rights or any other universally-accepted human right should be given the honour of hosting such a prestigious event as the World Cup?

To be honest, I think most fans are actually sick to the back teeth of the focus being on all of these issues rather than on football.  The World Cup is all about the football isn’t it?  A chance to bring so many nations together, on the world stage.  Feel the national pride oozing from every pore of the players and their spectators?

Should we just relax and enjoy the football, with a BEER – which you certainly couldn’t do at a match in Qatar lol!  Enough already… Let’s just concentrate on the football…

Michelle Maxwell

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5 Comments

  1. Everyone participating actively or otherwise in this tournament has showed that money trumps even the most die hard causes, so to everyone pretending to care about lqbtq rights please stop, we can see through the farce. This despicable virtue signaling is just cringe, like wearing an armband is going to save anyone 😳

  2. I agree with klopp’s position, as I understand it, viz that the players should face no criticism for playing the tournament and following whatever rules they have to, nor should they be under any pressure to “make a statement” in some way.
    Good on Scott for standing up for her beliefs in some way, but realistically, the worst case for her is that she gets sent home and has something to talk about. Kane and Bale would lose the opportunity to play in a world cup, certainly bale’s last, and maybe kane’s as well.

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