The ‘One Love’ LGBTQ rights armband is currently causing a stir and unrest at the 2022 Qatar World Cup as Qatar government as refused to adopt such laws because homosexuality is illegal in their nation.

The Dutch Football Association launched the One Love campaign before the start of the 2020 soccer season in an effort to “show their support for the union of all people” and denounce all kinds of discrimination. Nine additional countries, including Norway, Sweden, and France, were revealed to adopt the campaign in September 2022 in preparation for forthcoming events including the Qatar World Cup and the UEFA Nations League in 2023.

In order to spread the message of LGBTQ inclusion in a country where homosexuality is against the law, the soccer captains of seven European teams were set to wear rainbow armbands at Qatar’s World Cup. However, none of them will wear it now that they are under fire from FIFA, which oversees the sport.

FIFA seriously issued a warning that any team attempting to promote the One Love message will receive an immediate yellow card at the start of the game. This would raise the possibility of players receiving red card in a match, which might have an impact on how they ultimately perform in the tournament.

Harry Kane, the captain of England team who publicly announced of wearing the one love arm band in their opening match against Iran couldn’t wear it because of the fear of FIFA sanctions.

In a related news, a US journalist was arrested at the World Cup stadium for wearing LGBTQ shirt. The American journalist was arrested on Monday November 21.

Grant Wahl, a journalist who currently writes for Sports Illustrated and runs a Substack covering soccer, stated on Twitter that his shirt stopped him from entering the stadium for the US-Wales 2022 World Cup game on Monday.

His shirt displayed a soccer ball surrounded by a rainbow, which is regarded as the LGBTQ community’s pride color.

Wahl tweeted that he was told: “You have to change your shirt. It’s not allowed.”

Later in the day, Wahl tweeted an update, saying he was “OK, but that was an unnecessary ordeal”.

He wrote:

“Am in the media center, still wearing my shirt. Was detained for nearly half an hour. Go gays.