England will wear poppy on armbands despite points deduction risk but Fifa say they shouldn't be exempt from ban

The new secretary general Fatma Samoura and her boss, FIFA president Gianni Infantino, are in no mood to back down

Fifa president Gianni Infantino (Getty)

The Football Association announced on Wednesday night that it will risk a possible points deduction by allowing England players to wear poppies in their World Cup qualifier against Scotland next week, despite a hardening stance on Wednesday night by Fifa who demanded to why this nation felt it was entitled to break rules banning them.

The governing body insisted that it did not consider the poppy “a political, religious or commercial message – nor does it relate to any one historic event” and was therefore well within its rights to allow players to wear armbands.

Fifa’s Senegalese secretary general Fatma Samba Diouf Samoura said after arriving for a meeting of the International Football Association Board, to be held at Wembley on Thursday, that Britain should not be made an exception. “Britain is not the only country that has been suffering as a result of war,” she said. “Syria is an example. My own [African] continent has been torn by war for years. The only question is ‘why are we doing exceptions for just one country and not the rest of the world.’”

The stand-off between the two governing bodies became increasingly tense on Wednesday, with Ms Samoura making her position clear hours after Prime Minister Theresa May had condemned Fifa for its “outrageous” stance, in the House of Commons.

The FA’s problem is that it still has no clarity about whether a points deduction from its World Cup qualifying group might be imposed, despite several days spent seeking an understanding from Fifa. Gareth Southgate’s side are two points clear of Lithuania and Slovenia after three games.

There is substantial sympathy within the global football community for Fifa’s stance, since some in Britain may not be so comfortable with other sporting nations’ attempts to commemorate war dead who are not considered to be on the right side of a moral argument - such as supporters of despotic regimes. There are a total 211 nations under the Fifa umbrella.

Nevertheless, the governing body are going ahead with the armbands. “The FA intend to pay appropriate tribute to those who have made the ultimate sacrifice by having the England team wear black armbands bearing poppies in our fixture on Armistice Day,” it said in a statement.

Earlier, chairman Greg Clarke told ITV News: “We’re commemorating millions of people who gave their lives in wars over the last 100 years and they deserve that, and the people who lost relatives deserve that, and that’s our plan. We're balancing respect for the fallen and their families, with respect for the governing body, and we're negotiating in good faith with Fifa to try and find a solution, but there will be poppies at Wembley.”

The Fifa rule in question – Law 4, paragraph 4 - outlaws nations wearing anything that can be construed as a political or religious statement under the Equipment Regulations. It was actually proposed by the FA in 2014, after players wore Nelson Mandela T-shirts after his death.

Both the English and Scottish football associations have contacted the governing body to request an exception, but Scottish FA chief executive Stewart Regan claimed Fifa was “sticking to the letter of the law”, though he hoped that a resolution to have the poppy displayed in some way would materialise.

The complexity of the issue has been revealed by Commons' Culture, Media and Sport select committee chair Damian Collins MP wants Fifa to "clarify” why the Republic of Ireland wore a symbol marking the Easter Rising, during a friendly against Switzerland on March 25. Collins accused FIFA of “double standards.”

May labelled Fifa’s decision “utterly outrageous”, and told football’s governing body to “sort their own house out” before telling others what to do.