Banning turbans on the soccer pitch is ridiculous

There is something distinctly perverse about the obsession some people in this province have with what people wear on their heads.

The latest example in this respect is the Fédération de soccer du Québec’s arbitrary refusal to allow young Sikh soccer players to wear turbans on the province’s soccer pitches.

It follows a row that persisted for some years over female Muslim players being barred from soccer fields if they insisted on wearing head scarves. That ridiculous ban was finally lifted last year. And since then, there have been no reports of any mishaps on a soccer field, here or anywhere else, that can be attributed to the wearing of a hijab.

Nor had there been any such reported incident as a result of male Sikh players wearing turbans while playing soccer. Indeed, Mukhbir Singh, who is Quebec vice-president of the World Sikh Organization of Canada, told The Gazette this week that he had played soccer in Quebec wearing his turban for a full decade, until the matter suddenly became an issue last summer when the Quebec federation decided that turbans would not be tolerated.

It’s true that the long-standing regulations of FIFA, soccer’s international governing body, specify that players can only wear a jersey, shorts, shin guards, stockings and cleats while playing. On the other hand, the regulations do not specifically forbid turbans, and what’s more, FIFA came around last year to approving sport-specific hijabs, after its med- ical committee had determined that they do not pose a safety threat.

More pertinently, there have been no reports from minor-soccer leagues in the rest of the country pointing to problems from Sikh players wearing turbans. Last week, the Canadian Soccer Association sent a memo formally asking provincial associations to permit turbans on their fields, stressing that the point is to make soccer as accessible as possible to everyone.

So far, only the Quebec association has balked at the request. Worse, it has done so without offering any good reason for its refusal. Its spokesman, Michel Dugas, quibbled that the request to allow turbans will have to be submitted to its referees’ committee, which in turn will make a recommendation to the federation’s executive committee, a bureaucratic process expected to drag on for many months.

In Quebec, authorities make much of the importance of integrating newcomers of diverse backgrounds into society. But the turban ban works against integration more than for it, by preventing male Sikhs of religious conscience from joining in on one of the fastest growing sports in this province.

Dugas was unable to explain why turbans on soccer fields have suddenly become a policy problem for the Quebec federation, after years of Sikh players having been able to wear them in games without incident.

One can only conclude that the Quebec federation’s refusal to embrace the Canadian federation’s recommendation is either due to petulance on its part, or is yet another manifestation of intolerance in Quebec toward people who dress and speak differently.