Soccer players forced to give up armbands

DOHA — FIFA'S threat of on-field punishment for players pushed World Cup teams Monday to abandon a plan for their captains to wear armbands that were seen as a rebuke to host nation Qatar's human rights record.

Just hours before the first players with the armbands in support of the “One Love” campaign were to take the field, soccer's governing body warned they would immediately be shown yellow cards.

That changed the calculus for the seven European teams, which may have expected merely to be fined.