`Extreme blackmail' forced federations to drop armbands

Soccer federations who had planned to wear the `Onelove' armbands to make a statement against discrimination during the World Cup in Qatar were faced with “extreme blackmail” that led to dropping the planned action, the German Football Association (DFB) said on Tuesday.

The federations of England, Wales, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany and Denmark had said they had been put under pressure by FIFA, who had threatened to issue yellow cards to any player wearing the multicoloured armband.

Homosexuality is illegal in the Gulf state.

The DFB'S media director Steffen Simon told German Deutschlandfunk radio that England, who had been the first team to be expected to wear it on Monday in their game against Iran, had been threatened with multiple sporting sanctions.

“The tournament director went to the English team and talked about multiple rule violations and threatened with massive sporting sanctions without specifying what these would be,” he said.

Simon, who did not specify if he was referring to local organizers or FIFA in his reference to the tournament director, said the other six nations then decided to “show solidarity” and not wear it.

“We lost the armband and it is very painful, but we are the same people as before with the same values. We are not impostors who claim they have values and then betray them,” he said.

“We were in an extreme situation, in an extreme blackmail and we thought we had to take that decision without wanting to do so.”

The English team did not want to comment on this matter. FIFA and local organizers did not respond to Reuters requests for a comment.

The reaction in Germany to the DFB'S U-turn has been one of scathing criticism, with supermarket chain REWE dropping its deal with the DFB.

The federation's reputation has suffered in recent years with four previous presidents resigning amid corruption allegations and other scandals, or tarnished by them.

“I can understand the disappointment. We had the choice between the plague and cholera,” Simon said.

The DFB told Reuters it was now checking all its options following FIFA'S decision.

A peak of 13 million people tuned in to ITV'S television and online coverage to see Wales clinch a draw against the United States in their opening game at the World Cup on Monday, the British broadcaster said.

From kick off to final whistle, the match was watched by an average of nearly 10 million viewers, it said.

England's opening match — a 6-2 victory over Iran on Monday when many people were at work — was streamed a record 8 million times, the BBC said