Atlanta, USA (CNN)– 10 European teams, 8 of which qualified for the 2022 World Cup, will participate in a season-long campaign called “One Love” calling for “integration and anti-discrimination”.
The Netherlands, England, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Wales announced the launch of the campaign, which was first proposed by the Netherlands, where each captain of these teams will wear a badge bearing the phrase “One Love”.
The heart that will appear on the badge of the captains of the teams, 8 of which will participate in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, bears colors that reflect all backgrounds.
The Dutch national team chose the colors because they reflect all cultures, backgrounds, genders and sexual identities, and this badge will be worn in Qatar, where homosexuality is a crime punishable by law.
For its part, Norway and Sweden will participate in this campaign during their matches in the European Nations League, while England players will wear a black armband to mourn the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
Dutch captain Virgil van Dijk said: “This is an important message that fits in the world of football. On the pitch, everyone is equal and it should be the same everywhere in society, and by wearing the One Love badge we are sending that message,” he said.
In June of last year, England captain Harry Kane revealed that he had spoken with Denmark’s Christian Eriksen and France’s captain, Hugo Lloris, and discussed with them “taking a united position on the human rights situation in Qatar”.
The idea for this campaign grew out of a supportive group for workers in UEFA, which was set up to deal with issues related to the situation of foreign workers in Qatar and the LGBT community.
Homosexuality remains illegal in Qatar, and whoever practices it is punished with imprisonment for up to 3 years, while the British newspaper “The Guardian” published a report in which it talked regarding the death of 6,500 workers during the last ten years during the participation in the construction of the infrastructure for the World Cup Qatar 2022.
On the other hand, the director of the organizing committee for the tournament, Nasser Al-Khater, denied this information “categorically” and did not link the deaths of the mentioned number of workers to the construction of the infrastructure for the World Cup, which CNN cannot independently verify.
In an interview with CNN last year, Al-Khater highlighted the reforms made by Doha to the situation of foreign workers in the country, and said, “We continue to push for compensation for the families of foreign workers who lost their lives or suffered injuries while working on construction projects,” he said.
The Director of the Organizing Committee continued, “Alongside the members of the European Union Working Group and the Human Rights Committees, we are pressing FIFA to get an update on the establishment of a foreign labor center in Doha, with the aim of providing advice and assistance to foreign workers, it is clear that Qatar has taken progressive legislation In recent years, to give workers their rights, and this issue (establishing the center) will contribute to the implementation of these legislations,” as he put it.
