World Cup 2022: latest news from Qatar and FIFA threat to protesters with rainbow armbands

The head of English football said on Friday that FIFA had threatened “unlimited” sanctions against players who wore the OneLove rainbow headband at World Cup matches in Qatar.

England, Wales and five other European countries planned to wear the armband to encourage diversity, but abandoned the initiative after football’s world governing body threatened them with sports sanctions.

Headbands were widely seen as a response to the laws of Qatar, where homosexuality is illegal.

Football Association chief executive Mark Bullingham said the FA believes FIFA actually threatened to ban the players.

“Was unrestricted. They will take disciplinary action against any player who wears an eyepatch over a yellow card,” he told ITV Sport.

England, Wales, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland said they wrote to FIFA in September with information about the OneLove armband but received no response.

“Over this period we had many meetings with FIFA and on Saturday before the game we felt that we had reached an understanding where we would wear it,” Bullingham added. “We have not received permission, but we face a fine for this.

“Unfortunately, on the day of the game we were warned 10 minutes before we were supposed to go to the game two hours.

“They came here with five officials and they told us a scenario where at the very least anyone who wears an armband will be prosecuted and on top of that will be subject to disciplinary action.” German players covered their mouths for a team photo ahead of the match against Japan on Tuesday to protest FIFA’s stance, and the German Football Federation (DFB) said it was investigating the legality of the threat to sanction players for wearing armbands.