England captain Leah Williamson could be allowed to wear a One Love armband at the Women’s World Cup after FIFA President Gianni Infantino revealed he is trying to find a solution to the dispute that dominated the start of Qatar 2022.
England abandoned plans for Harry Kane to wear the multicoloured garment highlighting LGBTQ rights at the men’s World Cup in November after being threatened with sanctions by FIFA.
But when asked about them being worn at the Women’s World Cup, Mr Infantino said today in London: “We are looking for a dialogue and we will have a solution in place well before the Women’s World Cup. I hope so.”
Williamson said she wants to be allowed to wear the One Love armband in Australia when the European champions open their World Cup campaign in July, saying it would be a “great stage and a great time to promote the values we believe in so much”.
Unlike Australia and New Zealand, Qatar has laws prohibiting same-sex relations and some fans were blocked from having rainbows on their clothing during the World Cup.
England and Wales were among seven nations that announced last September they wanted to wear One Love armbands in Qatar.
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But there was no clear response from FIFA for two months until the days before their opening games when they were warned “sporting sanctions” could be imposed because the armbands were not an approved piece of equipment under the World Cup tournament regulations.
“I think we all went through a learning process there,” Mr Infantino said after a meeting of football’s lawmaking body.
“What we will try to do better this time is to search and look for dialogue with everyone involved – the captains, the federations, the players generally, FIFA, from all over the world – to capture the different sensitivities to explain, to exchange and to see what can be done in order to express a position, values or whatever feeling that somebody has without hurting anyone else in a positive way.”
The Women’s World Cup features openly gay players – something that has never been the case at a men’s tournament.
Williamson wore the One Love armband while playing for England in the Arnold Clark Cup – a mini-tournament not organised by FIFA.
Football Association chief executive Mark Bullingham said: “I think nobody enjoyed the circumstances we had at the men’s World Cup.
“That was difficult for all of us. We have started a conversation to make sure we can resolve the situation a long time before the [women’s] World Cup and we will absolutely be involving a broad range of people in that conversation. But the intention is to agree something.”
Mr Bullingham was attending the meeting of the International Football Association Board (IFAB) that sets the laws of the game.
The IFAB was formed 137 years ago by the FAs from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland who still feature on the board alongside FIFA.
At the Qatar World Cup, England and Wales said they were prepared to “pay fines that would normally apply to breaches of kit regulations” but they could not “put our players in the situation where they might be booked or even forced to leave the field of play”.
A statement added: “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 One Love armband to actively support inclusion in football, and had no response.”
