Germany will not face any disciplinary action from FIFA, the PA news agency understands, after taking the OneLove armband protest to a new level.
The move marked another day of tension between the seven European nations who supported the OneLove campaign and FIFA, with the group – which includes the English and Welsh FAs – exploring their legal options over the matter.
The Football Association declined to comment on whether the England team would copy the German gesture ahead of their match against the United States on Friday, while the Football Association of Wales chief executive Noel Mooney said he was “furious” with FIFA’s behaviour in the armband row.
England and Wales were only told hours before their opening matches on Monday that they would face sporting sanctions if captains Harry Kane and Gareth Bale wore the rainbow-coloured armbands.
Mooney told ITV: “Months and months (FIFA) have known we were going to wear the OneLove armband, and to lay that one on us is pretty cheap and pretty low to be frank and we’re really disappointed by that attitude.
“We’ve been absolutely furious about this, we’ve given FIFA everything we’ve got in terms of how furious we are about this decision. We think this was a terrible decision.”
Asked whether he felt it looked like the OneLove group had backed down, Mooney said: “We didn’t back down. We had to look at the sporting sanction that was there.
“We had said we would take fines, we would accept whatever sanctions came, but when it turned at the very last moment to specific sporting sanctions that would have stopped our players taking the field of play potentially, that’s a different thing. It was done so late.”
The OneLove campaign started in September and runs for a year but was set to be especially significant during the World Cup in Qatar, a country where same-sex relationships are criminalised.
PA understands lawyers for the group are looking at the regulations to examine the sanctions the associations were threatened with. Danish FA chief executive Jakob Jensen confirmed legal options were being explored, but said the group could not immediately go to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Speaking about the ‘covered mouths’ gesture after his side’s 2-1 defeat to Japan, Germany coach Hansi Flick said: “It was a sign, a message that we wanted to send out. We wanted to convey the message that FIFA is silencing us.”
The German gesture could have prompted disciplinary…
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