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Germany and Chelsea forward Kai Havertz has hit out at FIFA following the ban of 'One-Love' armbands during the FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
England, Germany and a host of other nations had decided to wear rainbow armbands to show their support towards the LGBTQ community. FIFA, however, banned the use of these armbands due to strict laws relating to homosexuality in Qatar.
Kai Havertz has accused FIFA of not allowing the teams to do the right thing during the course of the 2022 FIFA World Cup. The Chelsea attacker believes that it is vital for players to step up and do what is needed to show support for marginalized groups.
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Speaking to Wettfreunde (via Metro), Kai Havertz was quoted as saying the following:
"Yeah, of course, it’s important for us to do a statement like this. Yeah, I think we spoke about the game, what we can do and for us, it was the right thing to do. To show the people that yeah, we try to help wherever we can. And, of course, FIFA makes [it] not easy for us. But we tried to show that now, with that."
Despite not being allowed to wear the armband, Germany protested in their own way. Prior to kicking off their opening group stage match against Japan on 23 November, the German starting XI covered their mouths with their hands during the pre-match picture.
This was intended to convey to the rest of the world that the players were silenced by FIFA.
Germany suffered a shock defeat at the hands of Japan at the 2022 FIFA World Cup
Germany had a poor start to their 2022 FIFA World Cup campaign after suffering a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Japan on 23 November.
The 2014 world champions took the lead through a first-half penalty converted by Ilkay Gundogan. Japan, however, scored twice in the second half through Ritsu Doan and Takuma Asano to pick up all three points.
Germany have yet again made a poor start to their World Cup campaign. During the 2018 edition of the tournament, the side lost 1-0 to Mexico in their opening group stage match and eventually finished at the bottom of their group.
Die Mannschaft will next face fellow European giants in Spain on Sunday (27 November). Spain will come into the fixture in some fine form after securing an emphatic 7-0 victory over Costa Rica in their opening game of the tournament.
