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This Tuesday, November 22, Denmark faced Tunisia in a match of the World Cup. The match ended with a 0-0. During the match, the cameras turned to the former Danish Prime Minister who was dressed in a blue dress whose sleeves recalled the colors of the rainbow, in reference to the LGBTQ + flag. Through this gesture, Helle Thorning-Schmidt wanted to support the LGBTQ + communities whose rights are violated within the host country. In particular, Qatar considers same-sex relations a crime. The day before, she also posted a photo in which she appears with the “One Love” armband.
World Cup 2022: the German Federation is considering an appeal against FIFA over the “OneLove” armband
Under her Instagram post, Helle Thorning-Schmidt writes: “I spoke with activists from the LGBTQ+ community in Qatar and really got a great insight into the things we can put in place to help them. I fully support the seven teams who will not wear the armband in view of the heavy FIFA sanctions. The best thing we can hope for now is for one of the seven teams to win this cup”.
The seven European teams (Belgium, the Netherlands, England, Denmark, Germany, France, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden and Wales) who had planned to wear the colored armband in favor of inclusion and against discrimination were forced to give it up in the face of the threat of “sporting sanctions”. Fifa has indeed announced that it will sanction players who wear it with a yellow card.
Helle Thorning-Schmidt is not the only one to have defied the instructions of Fifa. Former Arsenal international Alex Scott also wore the famous armband during the England-Iran match.
