‘England should wear armbands in Russia stand’

England’s Jesse Lingard wearing a black armband at Wembley this month in memory of former players Ray Wilson and Ray Wilkins ENGLAND’S players should make a political stand against Russia by wearing black armbands during the World Cup, Labour MP Stephen Kinnock has said.

Kinnock advocated stripping Russia of the tournament and postponing it for a year during a parliamentary debate in March, held following the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter on the streets of Salisbury.

But with the tournament set to proceed as planned he believes the onus now falls on the Three Lions to protest against the policies of the Vladimir Putin regime.

Kinnock knows the country well, having lived and worked there as director of the British Council between 2005 and 2008, and is concerned about how England’s silent participation in the event would be perceived.

“The World Cup is a massive propaganda coup for the Kremlin and it should never have gone there in the first place,” he told Press Association Sport.

“We are using the beautiful game to launder the reputation of a dangerous authoritarian regime and that poses some major questions. We should think creatively about what we might be able to do to send a message. The FA pulling out would have been wrong because it would have made it look like a bilateral issue between Russia and the UK. But there are universal human rights norms, universal ways in which countries behave towards each other and Russia is in violation of those norms. Maybe we should seriously consider wearing a black armband in our first match, or in all our matches, to mark the death of Alexander Litvinenko, the attack on Mr Skripal and his daughter on British territory and the vicious injury to a member of our police force.”

Litvinenko, who had worked for both the Russian and British security services, was assassinated in London 12 years ago having ingested radioactive polonium-210. Sergei and Yulia Skripal were poisoned with the Novichok nerve agent this year, though Russia has repeatedly denied all involvement. Any kind of stand by England would be in contravention of FIFA’s rules against players wearing political, religious or commercial symbols.