Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Home nations unite
THE four home nations may unite to challenge Fifa over their fines for last month’s poppy row after it emerged the Irish Football Association cannot appeal against its sanction on its own.
Fifa announced the associations of Northern Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales had been punished to varying degrees for their Remembrance Day tributes.
The Football Association was fined £35,308 and the Scottish Football Association £15,692 (respectively, 45,000 and 20,000 Swiss francs) after their players wore black armbands bearing a poppy, which Fifa considers a political symbol, during the November 11 World Cup qualifier at Wembley.
The Football Association of Wales and the IFA, whose teams wore plain black armbands, earned respective punishments of £15,692 and £11,769 for displaying poppies around their stadiums.
The FA immediately announced it would lodge an appeal, while both the SFA and FAW are understood to be waiting for Fifa’s written reasons before deciding what to do.
But the IFA cannot follow the FA’s suit and take the matter to a Fifa appeal panel because its fine is exactly 15,000 Swiss Francs and, under Fifa’s disciplinary code, it must be more than that to be contested.
However the IFA may consider in joining the other associations to fight Fifa’s decision.