Dutch football reps won’t wear OneLove armband during match against Qatar

The leadership of the Dutch football association, KNVB, does not intend to wear a OneLove armband during the men’s national team final World Cup group match when they take on host country Qatar on Tuesday. Instead, they will wear a OneLove lapel pin, said professional football director Marianne van Leeuwen and KNVB Secretary-General Gijs de Jong during a meeting with reporters in Doha on Sunday.

Nancy Faeser, the German Minister of the Interior, and Hadja Lahbib, the Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs, sat wearing a OneLove captain’s armband while next to FIFA President Gianni Infantino in the exclusive box for dignitaries during their national teams’ matches last week. However, it is expected that the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, will also attend Qatar’s match against Oranje.

"Then a pin like that seems to me to be a bit more chic than a band," said Van Leeuwen. "With our OneLove campaign, we want to spread a message for inclusion and against discrimination. We will certainly continue with that, but our goal is not to unnecessarily be provocative. That will not get you anywhere. That may indeed be counterproductive."

Sports Minister Conny Helder will also be present at the match with Qatar. She announced via her spokesperson last week that she was considering wearing a OneLove arm band during the Dutch national team’s third group match in Qatar. "But that is of course up to her or the Cabinet," said De Jong from the KNVB. "We're not discussing it.”

The OneLove campaign was created by the Dutch football association and the Dutch government in 2020 after racist epithets and taunts were shouted at Excelsior player Ahmad Mendes Moreira during a match against FC Den Bosch. After the Dutch men’s national team responded by speaking out against racism, the OneLove campaign was created. Initially, UEFA banned Oranje from wearing a OneLove shirt during a match against Spain, which led to the introduction of the captain’s armband featuring colors meant to represent a diversity of cultural heritage, gender, and sexuality.

The armband was used by the Dutch team during the European Championships last year. UEFA did not raise an issue despite the significance of the decision as Hungary had just passed a law banning any discussion deemed to promote homosexuality or gender confirmation surgery with people under the age of 18.

The KNVB informed FIFA in September that it wanted captain Virgil van Dijk to wear a OneLove armband during all matches at the World Cup in Qatar. "We know that FIFA wants to separate sport and politics, but we thought this would only cost us a fine," said De Jong. "But FIFA only just threatened sporting sanctions last Monday, just before our first World Cup match with Senegal. Outrageous, but then we are powerless. Of course we do not want Van Dijk to have started the match with a yellow card. I think FIFA banned that armband under pressure from conservative movements in Qatar. For example, beer was also banned at the last minute in fan zones around the stadiums."

De Jong is familiar with calls for the KNVB to pull out of FIFA. "But what do you achieve with that?" he asked rhetorically. "The president of the Danish federation has said something like that. That's nice for the stage, but he told me that he was misquoted. It’s better to keep fighting for a better FIFA. We will keep putting pressure on FIFA. We want human rights to be even better anchored in the statutes. FIFA must become more modern and transparent. FIFA must cooperate better with UEFA. It should not become an arm wrestling match. It must be much better."