Fifa World Cup 2022: Teams shelve armband plan seen as snub to host

Since being awarded the World Cup hosting rights in 2010, conservative Muslim Qatar has faced criticism of its treatment of low-paid migrant workers and criminalisation of homosexuality

Fifa’s threat of on-field punishment for players forced World Cup teams to back down Monday and abandon a plan for their captains to wear armbands that were seen as a rebuke to host nation Qatar’s human rights record.

Just hours before the first players wearing the armbands in support of the “One Love” campaign were set to take the field, Fifa warned they would be immediately be shown yellow cards — changing the calculus for the seven European teams, which may have expected to merely be fined. The displays are a violation of Fifa rules.

The standoff was just the latest dispute