Tuesday 22 November 2022 03:59 PM England 'BLACKMAILED' into dropping One Love armband at World Cup, German FA ... trends now
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England and other teams planning to wear the the 'OneLove' armbands to make a statement against discrimination during the World Cup in Qatar were faced with 'extreme blackmail' of 'massive sanctions', the German Football Association (DFB) claimed today.
The federations of England, Wales, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany and Denmark had said on Monday they had been put under pressure by FIFA, who had threatened to issue yellow cards to any player wearing the multi-coloured armband.
The DFB's media director Steffen Simon told German Deutschlandfunk radio that England, who had been the first team to be expected to wear it on Monday in their game against Iran, had been threatened with multiple sporting sanctions to prevent them from making the gesture in support of LGBT+ rights.
'The tournament director went to the English team and talked about multiple rule violations and threatened with massive sporting sanctions without specifying what these would be,' Simon said.
Homosexuality is illegal in the Gulf state and punishable by up to seven years in prison.
Competing nations previously planning to wear a 'One Love' armband at the World Cup were 'blackmailed' into not doing so, it has been claimed
BBC Presenter and former footballer Alex Scott is pictured wearing OneLove armband
Simon, who did not specify if he was referring to
