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Life
Alex Scott wears OneLove rainbow armband at World Cup in powerful gesture of solidarity
3 years ago
2 min read
BBC Sport presenter and former England player Alex Scott also addressed her decision to attend the Qatar World Cup amid controversy over the country’s human rights record
In a powerful show of solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community, Alex Scott wore a OneLove rainbow armband while reporting from England’s first World Cup match against Iran at Qatar’s Khalifa International Stadium.
England captain Harry Kane was previously set to wear the colourful armband, which is part of a campaign “to promote inclusion and send a message against discrimination of any kind”, during the match, until a statement from the FA earlier today backtracked on the decision.
Homosexuality is illegal in Qatar, and carries a maximum sentence of up to seven years in prison, while a recent report from Amnesty International found that the country’s labour system meant that “human rights abuses persist on a significant scale today”, with migrant workers receiving little protection.
The FA said that they were “frustrated” by international footballing body FIFA’s threat to sanction players wearing the armband with a yellow card, but weren’t prepared to “put our players in the situation where they might be booked.”
“FIFA has been very clear that it will impose sporting sanctions if our captains wear the armbands on the field of play,” their statement said. “As national federations, we can’t put our players in a position where they could face sporting sanctions, including bookings, so we have asked the captains not to attempt to wear the armbands in FIFA World Cup games.
Credit: BBC iPlayer
“We were prepared to pay fines that would normally apply to breaches of kit regulations and had a strong commitment to wearing the armband. However, we cannot put our players in the situation where they might be booked or even forced to leave the field of play.”
“We’re very frustrated by the FIFA decision which we believe is unprecedented.”
Captains for Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Holland, Switzerland and Wales will not wear the armband either.
Reporting from the pitch today, former Arsenal and England player Scott didn’t mention her decision to put on the armband on air, although her colleague Kelly Somers did point out the accessory, prompting Scott to acknowledge it with a nod.
Last night, Scott made responded to the controversial speech by FIFA president Gianni Infantino, after the football boss claimed that he could relate to gay people, disabled people and migrant workers because he had been bullied for having red hair as a child.
Speaking at the opening press conference for the 2022 Qatar World Cup, Infantino embarked on a bizarre outburst, telling the gathered journalists: “Today I feel Qatari, today I feel Arabic, today I feel African. Today I feel gay. Today I feel disabled. Today I feel [like] a migrant worker.”
“Of course I am not Qatari, I am not an Arab, I am not African, I am not gay, I am not disabled,” he continued. “But I feel like it, because I know what it means to be discriminated [against], to be bullied, as a foreigner in a foreign country. As a child I was bullied, because I had red hair and freckles, plus I was Italian.”
Referring to Infantino’s comments on BBC Sport, Scott said that the football executive would “never understand” what it feels like to feel concern for your safety in a country where homosexuality is illegal.
“You are not gay,” she said. “You’ll never understand travelling to a country where you are fearing for your life just because of your preference of who you choose to love.”
“There’s so much around this as well,” she continued. “To keep saying football is for everyone, that’s what you keep feeding us with… it’s not, because people have not been able to travel to watch their teams, to support their teams, so you can’t say football is for everyone.”
The former Arsenal and England player also defended her decision to cover the tournament for the BBC, despite the host nation’s position on LGBTQ+ rights and women’s rights, and the treatment of migrant workers.
Noting that she “totally understands” the decision of “a whole heap of fans from around the world from the LGBTQ+ community” for boycotting the event, she told co-host Gary Lineker that she felt it was important to be a part of “the harder conversations” about the event.
“I’ve had conversations about, ‘I should be staying at home, I should be boycotting’ and I thought long and hard about it,” she said. “I think that for me personally would have been the easy option.”
“I love my job and when I think about it sitting here and having the harder conversations, it’s bigger isn’t it?” she added. “We’re talking about migrant workers, we’re talking about the LGBT+ community, we’re talking about women’s rights.
“You think about four years ago, I was thinking this morning, I was the first female pundit for the BBC at the World Cup. You think how far we’ve moved in the last four years. Let’s hope in the next four years at the World Cup we’re never having to have those conversations again.”
Images: Getty, BBC iPlayer
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