Manager Gareth Southgate confirmed his side would take the knee before kick-off in Qatar, although captain Harry Kane will not wear the OneLove armband in support of the LGBT+ community after England were among the nations pressured by Fifa to drop the armband.
Regarding taking a knee, Southgate said on the eve of their first World Cup match that the anti-racism gesture is “what we stand for as a team and have done for a long period of time”.
“We’ve discussed taking the knee and we feel we should,” Southgate added.
England took a knee throughout Euro 2020 last year, despite facing jeers from some of their own fans in the build-up to the tournament, but opted against for their Nations League matches in September against Germany and Italy.
That decision was in line with the Premier League, where players are taking a knee during “specific moments” throughout the current campaign.
“Of course we understand in the Premier League that the clubs have decided to only do that for certain games, big occasions,” Southgate said.
“We feel this is the biggest and we think it’s a strong statement that will go around the world for young people, in particular, to see that inclusivity is very important.”
The gesture originated from American football player Colin Kaepernick and was widely used across the sporting world after the death of George Floyd. Premier League players first took a knee in June 2020.
England’s armband U-turn
World Cup organisers indicated that if captains continued with the OneLove armband, they would be booked as soon as the game started, according to a joint statement issued by England, Wales, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany and Denmark.
“Fifa has been very clear that it will impose sporting sanctions if our captains wear the armbands on the field of play,” the statement 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.
Southgate could still have persisted with the planned protest – but those higher up decided against it (Photo: Reuters/AFP)
“We were prepared to pay fines that would normally apply to breaches of kit regulations and had a strong commitment to wearing the armband. However we 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.
“Our players and coaches are disappointed – they are strong supporters of inclusion and will show support in other ways.”
Speaking on Sky News, UK cabinet minister Robert Jenrick said it was “perfectly legitimate” for England to take a stand.
“I’m fine with that,” the immigration minister said. “I think that’s a choice for Harry Kane and the team, and indeed for Wales as well. These are their choices, it’s not for the government to tell them what to do.
“And I think when you’re playing in a country like Qatar, which does have different standards in the way it treats, for example, the LGBTQ community, it’s perfectly legitimate for the England or the Welsh team to make that stand.”
Analysis: A weak and humiliating climbdown
England could have taken a proper stand but chose not to (Photo: Getty)
By Sam Cunningham, i chief football correspondent in Doha
The first sign of any real, meaningful inconvenience to the England player who would wear the OneLove armband – supposedly the big gesture to promote diversity and inclusion – and the Football Association backed down.
How humiliating this is, for the English FA and the others, to have already so meekly fought for their cause, only to be told that wasn’t happening either. And that if you wanted to die on that hill at the 2022 World Cup there’s up to seven yellow cards coming your way. Nooooo… not seven! We couldn’t possibly take seven yellow cards!
Fifa then waited until the day of England’s opening game against Iran to confirm that those yellow cards would be flying if Kane had the audacity to wear a completely made up symbol that is sort of like a rainbow but isn’t a rainbow. With the minutes ticking down to kick-off, it gave them no time to come up with a clever solution, other than to fold.
“We are very frustrated by the Fifa decision,” the joint statement said. So frustrated that you’re going to… do exactly what they say? There are other words for that, which aren’t “frustrated”.
And I know, of course, this isn’t only on England. They made the decision alongside the FAs of Wales, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland. But they didn’t have to follow everyone else. They didn’t have to see which way the wind was blowing then leap onto a hand glider and let their morals be swept away.
