The German women’s national team will continue to use a rainbow-coloured captain’s armband in tune-up games for the World Cup but then act according to FIFA rules at the tournament.
Team manager Maika Fischer said on Wednesday that governing body FIFA has told all teams they want them to use the official FIFA armband at the July and August tournament in Australia and New Zealand
It had insisted that exceptions would not be permitted.
Fischer said the German team would not object to this.
FIFA later said it has not made any decision yet regarding the armband and was in a dialogue with the teams.
At last year’s men’s World Cup in Qatar, several teams including Germany had wanted to use a special One Love captain’s armband in support of all kinds of diversity.
But FIFA vetoed this, threatening (to use) sports sanctions such as yellow cards for the captain.
The men’s team has now returned to a captain’s armband in Germany’s national colours for their friendly internationals until Euro 2024.
The women will however continue to use the rainbow colours, a symbol of the LGTBQ+ community, at their pre-World Cup games.
“I know that our players want to continue wearing the rainbow armband at our international matches,” coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg said.(dpa/NAN)
