GENEVA – The Norwegian national team and soccer federation will not be disciplined for players wearing T-shirts in support of human rights before a World Cup qualifying game, FIFA said Thursday.
White shirts with the slogan “HUMAN RIGHTS” and “Respect on and off the pitch” were worn before Norway’s game at Gibraltar on Wednesday after a promise to draw attention to labour rights abuses in Qatar, the host of next year’s World Cup.
FIFA’s disciplinary code states players and federations can face disciplinary action in cases of “using a sports event for demonstrations of a non-sporting nature.”
However, FIFA said it will not open a case against Norway – continuing a more relaxed policy it showed at the 2018 World Cup toward women campaigning for access to stadiums in Iran.
“FIFA believes in the freedom of speech, and in the power of football as a force for good,” the governing body said in a statement Thursday.
Qatar, which won the World Cup hosting vote a decade ago, has been under scrutiny over laws and conditions for migrant workers helping to build infrastructure for the tournament.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino said last week Qatar has made social progress because of becoming the World Cup host.
Some of Norway’s soccer clubs have called for a boycott of the tournament in Qatar. That is unlikely partly because FIFA’s World Cup regulations state that teams withdrawing from next year’s tournament can be banned from the 2026 edition. The first 48-team World Cup – with 16 European teams qualifying instead of 13 – will be hosted in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Norway coach Stale Solbakken said ahead of the Gibraltar game his team “can do things that the world might see” to put pressure on Qatar.
FIFA loosened its rules at the last World Cup in Russia regarding the Iranian protest, a campaign supported by its president Gianni Inantino.
At Iran’s opening game in St. Petersburg, female fans unfurled banners protesting for their right to attend men’s soccer games at home. A ban had been imposed since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
After the game, FIFA said the banners were “to express a social appeal as opposed to a political slogan and was therefore not prohibited under the relevant regulations.”
