Mueez Ajao
– Belgium captain Eden Hazard has said players should “concentrate on the football” after Germany covered their mouths in protest at FIFA over its response to the OneLove campaign.
– Germany performed the gesture as they lined up for a team photo before their shock 2-1 loss against Japan in their World Cup opener, with their coach Hansi Flick saying it was a way of showing “FIFA is muzzling us.”
– Belgium, Germany and five other European teams abandoned the anti-discrimination OneLove initiative earlier this week after players were threatened with sanctions if they wore the rainbow armband.
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– Speaking after his side’s 1-0 win against Canada on Wednesday, however, Hazard said it would have been better if Flick’s side had not made a stand and won their game.
– “Yes but afterwards, they lost the match,” Hazard said, when asked for his thoughts on the gesture. “They would have been better off not doing it and winning.
– “We’re here to play football. I’m not here to pass on a political message, there are people who are better placed for that.
– “We want to be concentrated on the football.”
– FIFA threatened team captains with a yellow card if they wore the OneLove armband, but Hazard admitted he might have reconsidered his position in different circumstances.
– “I’m not at ease talking about it because I’m here to play football,” Hazard said.
– “We were kind of forbidden from… I didn’t want to start the match with a yellow card, it would have been annoying for the rest of the tournament.
– “If I were to redo it, maybe I would wear it again.”
– Homosexuality is illegal in Qatar while it was described as “damage in the mind” by one tournament ambassador before the finals began in the Gulf state this month.
– The tournament has proved highly controversial, with FIFA president Gianni Infantino giving an extraordinary opening address in which he criticised European nations’ view of the finals.
– Before the World Cup, Infantino wrote a letter to the 32 nations participating to ask them to “focus on the football” rather than getting dragged into political debates.
