no to Tomorrowland’s «Love» shirt for commercial links – Corriere.it

No of the Fifa to the Belgium. The tug of war continues between some of the Federations involved in the World Cup from Qatar 2022 and the world’s top football body. First the ban, complete with a warning to warn captains, for England, Wales, Belgium, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands to wear the captain’s armband with a rainbow heart and the writing One Love, to protect the rights of the LGBTQ+ category, now the problem of coach Roberto Martinez’s second shirt for the national team.

FIFA approved the official jerseys of the participating teams before the start of the tournament, but Belgium’s away shirt had the «Love» label hidden inside the collar. “In principle we could play by covering the brand,” said the Belgian federation, but in the meantime “we chose to play in red for the group stage matches”.

The debut, without the injured Lukaku, is expected tomorrow, Wednesday 23 November, against Canada, which is back in a world tournament after Mexico ’86. The multi colored detail on the white shirt has been described as a “symbol of mutual values ​​on diversity, equality and inclusiveness” at the September launch at Belgian electronic music event Tomorrowlandone of the best known festivals in the world and always in the front row for the battle and recognition of rights to the Lgbtq+ category.

And it was precisely this that prompted Fifa to say no, refusing to comment on his controversial choice, the umpteenth in this World Cup. It must be said that the Belgium shirt, with the «Love» label, has already been on sale for several months and has met with great success among the fans. But according to the Brussels national team, these are not the same reasons linked to the captain’s armband: it would be a matter of a decision taken due to the commercial link with the famous festival given the references to the butterfly and fireworks typical of the event. A trade ban, in short.

“We were ready to pay high fines and we mentioned this in our discussions with Fifa, but there was no discussion. This makes it impossible to continue our action», the director general of the Belgian Federation, Peter Bossaert regretted to the Belgian newspaper, in the Flemish language, «Het Nieuwsblad».