ONELOVE... BIG TROUBLE

JOHN CROSS in Doha FA CHIEF Mark Bullingham has confirmed England players would have faced “unlimited” punishment for wearing the OneLove armband.

Three Lions captain Harry Kane was blocked from making the antidiscrimination gesture after FIFA threatened the seven nations who had signed up to wear it.

There were fears Kane could have been prevented from playing, the game stopped and all players left facing a ban.

FA chief executive Bullingham, in an interview with ITV, said any player would have faced further punishment on top of the yellow card and it could have threatened England’s whole World Cup campaign.

“It’s very important to understand what happened here. We have been clear that we wanted to wear it and we were committed,” he said.

“We announced we would do that in September and had a lot of meetings with FIFA over that period. On Saturday before the game, we felt we’d reached an understanding where we would wear it. We hadn’t got permission but we would face a fine for it.

“Unfortunately, on the day of the game, they gave us 10 minutes’ notice.

“Two hours before we were due to go to the game, they came here with five officials and ran us through a scenario where – at a minimum – anyone wearing the armband would be booked and face disciplinary action on top.

“It was unlimited. They would take disciplinary action against any player wearing the armband on top of having a yellow card.”

When asked if any player wearing the armband could have faced a ban for further games, rather than only a yellow card, Bullingham replied: “That’s correct.

“It’s not clear though – they just said they would take disciplinary action and there’s unlimited liability effectively in that action.”