One Love Armband Controversy in the Qatar FIFA World Cup 2022
The 2022 FIFA World Cup is an international football tournament in which the contestants consist of men from national teams of FIFA’s member associations. The 22nd FIFA World Cup is held in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022. It is the first World Cup conducted in the Arab and Muslim world. Moreover, it is the second time that this tournament being held in Asia after the 2002 tournament in South Korea and Japan.
The choosing location to conduct the World Cup tournament in Qatar has been controversial, due to Qatar’s rules in applying Islam values that contradict most Western ideas about human rights. Many western people believe that Qatar has violated migrant workers, women, and LGBTQ rights. After the Officials announced Qatar to host the World Cup tournament this year, Emir Tamom bin Hamad al-Thani stated to the U.N. General Assembly in September that “everyone is welcome at this year’s World Cup and LGBTQ people are no exception.”
Based on the Washington Post article, “the organizers publicly confirmed that there are no restrictions on who can share accommodations while visiting the World Cup.” Furthermore, the Qatari event organizers told all foreign travelers to consider limiting physical affection to respect the local custom. As officials suggested in an emailed statement that “everyone is welcome in Qatar, but we are a conservative country and any public display of affection, regardless of orientation, is frowned upon. We simply ask for people to respect our culture.”
Despite all the announcements from the organizers, both FIFA and the World Cup organizers found an issue with a group of European soccer associations who planned to make their captains wear the One Love armbands. The armband has a heart shape with rainbow colors in it. The Dutch soccer association, which led the campaign argues that “the armband is designed to use the power of football to promote inclusion and send a message against discrimination of any kind as the eyes of the world fall on the global game.”
As a result, UEFA forbid European captains to wear any equipment that could be considered as a political statement. It is known that there was no room for discussion when this rule applied to the World Cup. Specifically, the European soccer associations that compete in the tournament and join the campaign consist of Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Wales, Sweden, Switzerland, England, France, and Germany.
The main reason the inclusion campaign is fought by the European soccer associations pointing out their concern over the treatment of LGBTQ, women, and migrant workers in the Gulf state. However, same-sex relationships are against the law in the country. Moreover, in some cases punishable by death. The use of a rainbow armband is extremely sensitive for Qatar as the host of the tournament.
On the other hand, before the World Cup began, President of FIFA, Gianni Infantino encouraged the 32 teams bound for Qatar that they must “let football take center stage and focus on the football.” Nevertheless, after only a few days the tournament occurred, some nations behave otherwise. Trapped in a dilemma, FIFA asked the members of the tournament to wear anti-discrimination armbands in a “No Discrimination” campaign. A media also added that “FIFA is an inclusive organization that wants to put football to the benefit of society by supporting good and legitimate causes, but it has to be done within the framework of the competition regulations which are known to everyone.
In the middle of international debate, there must be an official rule to be applied to create a solution. Yet, we cannot please everyone in making a decision. It depends on where the tournament took place and as a guest, we should respect the local values and not force them to accept other values.
In conclusion, many people from the West just have little understanding of many customs and cultures outside of theirs. In fact, many people even do not know that slavery was only banned in Saudi Arabia in the 1970s (Hanzlíčková, 2017). In addition, homosexuality and trans behavior are illegal in many countries around the world (Duncan, 2017); since, there is no single religion that supports such a lifestyle to its followers (PRC, 2012). The Western nations’ education system needs a vast improvement.
References:
Duncan, P. (2017). Gay relationships are still criminalised in 72 countries, report finds. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jul/27/gay-relationships-still-criminalised-countries-report
Hanzlíčková, H. (2017). Slavery in the Gulf region. Cultural Studies Journal. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7160/ks.2017.080101
Olley, J. (2022). Why did FIFA ban the LGBTQ OneLove armband at the World Cup? ESPN FC. https://www.espn.com/soccer/fifa-world-cup/story/4808986/why-fifa-banned-lgbtq-onelove-armband-at-world-cup-in-qatar
Panja, T. (2022). Rainbow Armbands Are New Flash Point for FIFA and Qatar World Cup. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/21/sports/soccer/rainbow-armbands-qatar-world-cup.html
Pew Research Center. (2012). Religious Groups’ Official Positions on Same-Sex Marriage. https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2012/12/07/religious-groups-official-positions-on-same-sex-marriage/
Sands, L. (2022). What should LGBTQ soccer fans expect at the Qatar World Cup? A guide. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2022/11/20/world-cup-qatar-gay-laws-lgbtq/
