Eimear Ryan: Cloud over World Cup after rainbow warriors buckle

BACKED DOWN: England's Harry Kane with the One Love armband. The players backed down from wearing them in Qatar due to the threat of a booking. Pic: Nick Potts/PA Wire

It was a well-meaning, if ultimately hollow gesture. Seven European nations playing in the World Cup – England, Wales, the Netherlands, Denmark, Switzerland, Germany and Belgium – pledged that their captains would wear a rainbow-coloured armband during their games to promote diversity and inclusion. If it seemed like a tiny symbolic action in the face of a host nation that criminalises homosexuality and has a terrible human rights record, well, it was. But it was something.

On Monday, the day that England and Wales played their first fixtures, the seven national teams released a joint statement explaining that Fifa had ruled that any player wearing the armband would be booked before the match started. They were prepared to pay fines, the statement continued, but not to put their players in a situation where they might be booked – and they were no longer going to wear the armband.