Did Denmark threaten to quit FIFA after ban on 'One Love' armband at Qatar World Cup?

The Denmark Football Association has seemingly threatened to exit FIFA after the world's football body threatened sanctions on team captains if they decided to wear the controversial 'One Love' armband. The captains of seven European nations - England, Wales, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany and Denmark - had planned to wear this armband during their FIFA World Cup games to express their solidary with the LGBTQ+ community as there is a ban on homosexuality in host country Qatar.

Denmark FA threatens to quit FIFA amid 'One Love' armband controversy

While speaking about the issue of the 'One Love' armband controversy to Danish media in Qatar (as quoted by AP), Denmark's football federation president Jesper Møller said, "I imagine that there may be challenges if Denmark opts out alone. But let’s see if we can’t have a dialogue." Møller's remarks come shortly after Germany had threatened to pursue legal action against FIFA at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Earlier, the Football Associations of all seven European countries had also issued a joint statement to slam FIFA for their decision about not allowing their captains to wear the 'One Love' armband. The statement read, "FIFA has been very clear that it will impose sporting sanctions if our captains wear the armbands on the field of play."

"As national federations, we can't put our players in a position where they could face sporting sanctions including bookings, so we have asked the captains not to attempt to wear the armbands in FIFA World Cup games. We are very frustrated by the FIFA decision which we believe is unprecedented - we wrote to FIFA in September informing them of our wish to wear the One Love armband to actively support inclusion in football, and had no response," added the statement.

While FIFA made it clear that none of the teams' captains would be permitted to wear the 'One Love' armband, they did state that the captains would be permitted to wear armbands with the 'No Discrimination' slogan from the quarter-final stage of the FIFA World Cup 2022. As the debate surrounding this controversial topic continues to intensify, it will be interesting to see what happens next.