Denmark have been banned by FIFA from wearing a training kit during the World Cup, due to a positive human rights message on it.
There has been a lot of talk about FIFA deciding to host the World Cup in Qatar, ever since the Middle East country won the vote in 2010.
Qatar's poor record on human rights has been brought into such sharp focus that football's world governing body had to write to all the teams to ask them to 'focus on football' instead, the kind of thing an organisation who knows they're in the right would definitely do.
Advert
Denmark have been one of the noisiest countries to support human rights, which really shouldn't be a 'political' issue, people should just have rights.
The manufacturers of their kit have decided to make their logo not visible on the shirts, in order to make sure they aren't connected with the tournament, something Qatar aren't happy with.
The Danes have also decided to keep all the players wives and girlfriends at home this winter, because the Danish FA don't want to contribute to the profit of the tournament.
They were also hoping to arm their players with training kits with a message of support for human rights on them, in place of the sponsors names, to be worn during warm ups.
However, they've now confirmed that FIFA have banned them from wearing the shirts, due to their belief that human rights are just too political.
" Today we received a message from Fifa that the training shirt we had thought the players should train in, which says 'Human Rights For All' on the stomach, has been rejected for technical reasons, and we are sorry about that." DBU chief Jakob Jensen told Danish outlet DR Sporten.
"We are of the opinion that the message Human Rights for All is universal and is not a political call, but it should be something that all people can support."
Denmark captain Simon Kjaer is set to join a protest along with other World Cup captains, as they wear a 'One Love' rainbow coloured armband.
Countries wrote to FIFA to see if they were going to be allowed to wear the armbands, which didn't carry a very specific message but are in support for the LGBTQIA+ community, with homosexual relationships illegal in Qatar.
Despite the fact that the governing body hadn't got back to England to confirm if Harry Kane would be allowed to wear the armband, it was reported that the Three Lions' captain would wear it either way.
That's kind of the point of protest, doing something you've not been given permission to do, in order to make a stand, and Kjaer may join his English counterpart.
Of course FIFA would rather everyone just focused on the football, so there was no more criticism over their choice to hold the tournament in Qatar.
Topics: Football World Cup, Qatar, Denmark
Ryan Sidle