Arsenal’s Leah Williamson hopes to wear OneLove armband at FIFA Women’s World Cup by Michelle
The Lionesses were the winners of last year’s tournament and will play in the Arnold Clark Cup over the coming week, taking on Belgium, Italy and South Korea at three UK stadiums, beginning on February 16th with the two other match days on February 19th and 22nd.
Williamson, 25, will wear the armband for England during the Arnold Clark Cup tournament which kicks off at 19:45 UK today at Stadium MK in Leah’s home town of Milton Keynes. Particularly standing in solidarity with Czech Republic’s Jakub Jankto, the first current international in men’s football to publicly come out as gay this week.
We’re never shy in saying what we stand for, said Williamson.
We’re a squad that embraces equality and we have a number of people that feel very strongly about it. It’s not even a question for us really.
We have seen another men’s player step out and be as brave as they can be and potentially change their whole life – as they don’t know what’s coming – so to also stand in solidarity with them is important to us.
It’s something we’ve always done and will continue to do. We’re not just impacting football but trying to have a positive influence on society and that’s one of the ways we can do that.
It’s a journey the world is on that isn’t quite where we want it to be yet. I think Jakub [Jankto] was a main factor, but as always, I think it stands against discrimination of any form.
When asked by the BBC about wearing the OneLove armband at the Women’s World Cup, Williamson said:
Hopefully, it’s not a last-minute call when we get there but it’s something we’ve done all year round.
The statement that was made at the Euros last summer, with every team participating, was incredible. Every picture we have with the trophy, there’s a rainbow armband in there.
It’s a great stage – and time – to promote those values that we believe in so much so I hope it’s the same.
We make clear statements constantly about the society we want to live in and that we want to have a positive impact on the world, she added.
Hopefully, those things are resolved in a positive way by Fifa, Australia and New Zealand. There’s a time and place for players to speak out but ultimately those decisions are not in our hands and you hope they’re made in the best interests of the game.
Good luck to the Lionesses this week in the Arnold Clark Cup and let’s hope there is no such debacle for the FIFA Women’s World Cup as there was for the men’s at the Qatar World Cup when a joint statement from the Football Associations of England, Wales, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, The Netherlands and Switzerland said FIFA has been very clear that it will impose sporting sanctions if our captains wear the armbands on the field of play. 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.
OneLove, Love is Love…
Michelle Maxwell
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