No rainbow armbands or ‘political’ symbols for players or fans at FIFA Women’s World Cup

July 15, 2023

With the FIFA Women’s World Cup set to kick off in Australia and New Zealand on 20th July, world football’s governing body has confirmed that players will not be able to wear the rainbow armband in support of LGBTQ+ rights when taking the field.

The same applies for fans, with conditions of entry, which must be accepted prior to accessing tickets, banning political or offensive messaging that discriminates on the basis of race, gender, disability, wealth, religion and sexual orientation.

For players the ban on the rainbow armband also includes the OneLove armband. However, they will be able to choose to wear one of eight sanctioned options.

The move continues the policy applied at last year’s men’s World Cup in Qatar, with sanctions possible should a team choose to breach the rules.

The themes of the armbands for the Women’s World Cup were picked after consultation with the 32 participating teams, players and United Nations agencies. The messages on the armbands are: Unite for Inclusion, Unite for Indigenous Peoples, Unite for Gender Equality, Unite for Peace, Unite for Education for All, Unite for Zero, Unite for Ending Violence Against Women and Football is Joy, Peace, Love, Hope and Passion.

The logo on the Unite for Inclusion armband features the same colours as those used in the OneLove armband, with red, back and green (the Pan-African flag) representing race and heritage and pink, yellow and blue (the pansexual flag) representing all gender identities and sexual orientations.

Conditions for fans
With more than a million tickets and the tournament on track to become the most attended standalone women’s sporting event ever, fans with tickets have to accepting the extensive terms of use and stadium code of conduct prior to accessing their tickets, which the downloading of a separate app.

Among more than 100 instructions on the entry to the stadiums, replica firearms, flares, explosives, extendable batons and cold steel weapons along with items used in martial arts and extreme sports are prohibited, as are long and non-retractable umbrellas.

Beach balls, balloons, Frisbees and inflatable toys are also banned as are ladders, steps, benches, folding chairs and construction tools or boxes.

Commercially produced food items bought outside the stadium are also not allowed along with jars, bottles, cups, cans or “any other form of capped receptacle”, excluding disposable PET bottles up to one litre which can be filled at the ground.

FIFA’s pouring rights deal with Budweiser means specialty beers normally available at Australasian venues will not be available during the tournament. Similarly branded merchandise is not allowed.

Musical instruments and anything that produces “noise or other excessively large sounds” are also banned. This includes drums, whistles, megaphones or loudspeakers and vuvuzela that could be heard during the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.

Unsurprisingly streaking is not allowed as are bullet-proof vests, rollerblades, helmets, hard hats or “other similar objects”.

The ban on political or offensive messaging includes “any materials … that are of a political, offensive and/or, discriminatory nature, containing wording, symbols or any other attributes aimed at discrimination of any kind” as are “materials, including but not limited to banners, flags, flyers, apparel, colours, insignia and other paraphernalia that are identifiers of any gang or other groups as designated by the relevant police authorities”.

Images: FIFA sanctioned armbands for the Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand (top, credit: FIFA), England captain Leah Williamson wears the rainbow captain’s armband during the Euro 2022 game against Austria (middle, credit: MI News/NurPhoto/Shutterstock) and, as with the men's World Cup, brands from USA-based brewer Budweiser will be the only beers available in tournament venues (below).

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