The Football Association’s chief executive, Martin Glenn, has emphasised his belief that its defiance of Fifa over the wearing of armbands bearing poppies on Friday night against Scotland is morally and legally “rock solid”.
The FA wrote to the world governing body informing it that players planned to wear the armbands in the World Cup qualifier at Wembley on Armistice Day.
After Fifa said that would break its rules on the display of political symbols, the FA and the Scottish FA said their players would wear the armbands anyway. England have previously worn them, in 2011.
“We think they’re interpreting the rules wrongly,” said Glenn, speaking at a Sport Industry Group event in London. “This is a law-of-the-game issue, not a Fifa competition issue.”
He pointed to the fact no action had been taken against any of the clubs that had been wearing poppies on their strips, which he said was also technically a breach of Fifa’s regulations according to its interpretation of the law.
“So, I’m very confident that our legal position’s right, our moral position’s certainly right, and – you know what – there are bigger things in the game for Fifa to worry about,” Glenn said.
“We’ll contest it strongly because we believe – we’ve had QC opinion on this – our case is absolutely rock solid. So, good luck.”
Glenn also pointed out that Fifa had allowed England to wear the armbands in 2011 for a friendly against Spain. “We had a row with them in 2011; we thought we’d got over it,” he said. “Unfortunately, with new personalities coming in there, they felt they wanted to make a bit of a stand, which is very disappointing.”
Fifa has said that wearing the symbol would be a contravention of its rules around the display of political symbols and that if it made an exception for England and Scotland it would open the door for others.
It has also opened proceedings against Republic of Ireland for wearing shirts commemorating the centenary of the Easter Rising in a friendly against Switzerland in March.
Glenn said that even if Fifa was ultimately to fine the FA, he would look to persuade it that the money should go to the Royal British Legion.
“In the event if there were something [a fine], I’m sure we could persuade them to divert the finances for the Royal British Legion,” he said. “But I’m very confident it won’t come to that.”
Wales’ players will wear black armbands against Serbia on Saturday after Fifa turned down a Football Association of Wales request for poppies to be displayed on shirts or armbands. “We felt unable to take the risk of a financial penalty or point deduction,” said the FAW’s chief executive, Jonathan Ford. “However, as we always have done at this time of year, we will be paying our respects in other ways.”
