England manager Gareth Southgate said his squad will not be discouraged from speaking out about human rights abuses at the World Cup in Qatar, despite a plea from FIFA to focus on football.
The spotlight is on Qatar’s record on LGBTQ and women’s rights, as well as its treatment of foreign workers, who helped build the eight stadiums to host the biggest show in football.
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A World Cup ambassador sparked outrage this week by calling homosexuality, which is illegal in the Gulf state, “damage in the mind”.
Southgate made reference to the impact of gay players on England’s victory in the women’s European Championship earlier this year as he insisted his squad will make a stand if LGBTQ fans are targeted during the tournament.
“Regarding the LGBTQ community we stand for inclusivity and we’re very strong on that,” said Southgate as he named his 26-man squad for the tournament on Friday (AEDT).
“We think that is important in terms of all our supporters and we understand the challenges this tournament brings within that.
“If it wasn’t for the strength of that community we wouldn’t be women’s European champions. It’s very, very important to us.”
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In a letter to participating nations last week, FIFA asked for teams to “focus on football” and stop “handing out moral lessons.”
Under Southgate’s stewardship, England have consistently taken a strong stand against racism.
The Three Lions defied boos from their own fans at the start of Euro 2020 to take the knee against racial discrimination.
And Southgate said it was “highly unlikely” they would avoid talking about non-sporting matters during the tournament.
“We have always spoken about issues we think should be talked about, particularly ones we think we can affect,” he added.
“We have spoken in the same way other nations have spoken about this tournament and the human rights challenges. We’ve been very clear with our standpoint on that.
“We would also like to focus primarily on the football. For every player, every coach, everybody travelling to a World Cup, this is the carnival of football.
“This is the thing you work for your whole life so you don’t want that to be diminished by everything else that’s going on around it currently. But we recognise that we are going to be in that situation and we’ve got to deal with it.”
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FIFA REJECT DANISH REQUEST FOR SHIRTS TO WEAR PRO-HUMAN RIGHTS SHIRTS WITH ‘CRITICAL MESSAGE’
FIFA have rejected a bid by Denmark’s World Cup squad to wear pro-human rights shirts in training, the Danish football federation (DBU) said Thursday.
World football’s governing body dismissed the Danish request to be allowed wear jerseys bearing the message “Human Rights for All”, a spokesman for the DBU told AFP.
The DBU disputes that it is a political message but will comply with the FIFA decision to avoid fines and sanctions, they said.
Qatar has faced criticism for its human rights record on the treatment of foreign workers on major infrastructure projects for the World Cup and on women’s and LGBTQ rights.
Long hostile to the organisation of the World Cup in Qatar, the Danish federation had wanted to be at the forefront of the defence of human rights during the tournament which kicks off on November 20.
“We have sent a request to FIFA, but the response is negative. We regret that, but we have to take it into account,” DBU director Jakob Jensen told Danish agency Ritzau.
The federation had previously announced that training shirts would display “critical messages”, with two sponsors — national lottery Danske Spil and bank Arbejdernes Landsbank — agreeing to have their logos replaced.
“For me, this is a jersey with a very simple message about universal human rights,” Jensen added.
FIFA, which prohibits all political messages, last week urged teams to “focus on football” and not to drag it “into every ideological or political battle”.
On the official jerseys of the Scandinavian country during the competition, its equipment supplier Hummel also dimmed its logos in a sign of “protest” against the Qatari authorities.
Homosexuality is illegal in the Gulf state and captains from a number of leading European countries, including England, France and Germany, will wear armbands in rainbow colours with the message “One Love” in an anti-discrimination campaign.
