[drewks]

At the risk of the (power-)mad organisation that is FIFA closing this website down, how feking ludicrous are they..... and they are getting worse and worse....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38077727

How DARE the spectators wear a poppy?! They should be ashamed of themselves, and so should all home FA's for allowing them to show respect to all our fallen heroes
JEEEEEEEEEZ!!

(I know that this subject was a thread earlier so please merge if needs be, stairs)

[themaclad]

Bunch of bellends, utter ludicrous decision

[Stairs]

Total F*** Whittery

[Lord Snooty]

So wearing a poppy at a football match is a political gesture now.

But singing the national anthem isn't!

Every international match begins with the singing of national anthems. The biggest political gesture of all, alongside waving national flags.

[Dingle-Dingle]

I always find it a shame to throw away my poppy after Remembrance Day. This year mine is going in a envelope and being posted to:

FIFA
Strasse 20
PO Box 8044
Zurich
Switzerland.

If you don`t put a stamp on FIFA pay for the postage.

DD

[talkSAFT]

Good thinking, Dingle. Just found mine and it's on its way!

Trouble is: they'll store this up as another reason to get their own back for us winning the Wars!

[Devongone]

Brilliant Dingle Dingle ...... North Korea's national team wear a badge on their shirt which includes a miniature version of their flag with a red star ........ For ME that's fine, but it is obviously political. Any shirt that relates to a national flag is overtly political. It is actually quite difficult to find symbols which cannot be interpreted as a political statement.

Personally I wear a red poppy to remember the fallen and a white one to express a desire for no more war (which is what our former Chesterfield MP Tony Benn, who fought in the WW2, advocated). I hope both DO make a political statement, just as wearing black armbands for victims of a terrorist attack would honour the dead AND oppose their assassins both politically and morally.

I'll be sending a red and a white poppy to FIFA without a stamp but with a brief explanation.

[drewks]

So all the home FA's have been found guilty, and fined

Well done, all the home FA'S - I'm sure 95%+ of the population are behind you and would agree that FIFA have just confirmed that they are a bunch of hypocritical idiots

[Salopbaggie]

At the risk of being unpopular

In some ways I can see F.I.F.A.'s point.

Is singing a National Anthem or waving your own countries flag political, no it is not. The National Anthem and the flag are symbols of a country, they are not usually directly related to the politics or religion of that country. The UK could become Communist or Fascist next week, but the Union Jack would still be the Union Jack.

In terms of the punishment, it was pretty light in the scheme of things, not even the wages of one top pro for one day.

As far as F.I.F.A. are concerned we broke the rules by wearing an armband displaying a poppy, F.I.F.A warned us they considered the armband to be either "political or religious" before the game and we decided to go ahead and wear them anyway, so from F.I.F.A prospective we have to be punished or how could they uphold the rules for everyone else?

That said I personally still wear my poppy with pride

OK bring on the flack

[Dingle-Dingle]

Fifa disciplinary committee chairman Claudio Sulser said he "fully respected" the commemorations but stressed the rules "need to be applied to all member associations".

"The display, among others, of any political or religious symbol is strictly prohibited," he added.

"In the stadium and on the pitch, there is only room for sport, nothing else."

So will FIFA remove all the advertising boards from every ground. They are not sport.

Following Wales' 1-1 draw at home to Serbia the next day, Fifa opened disciplinary proceedings looking at "fans in the stands wearing the poppy" and the presence of "a member of the armed forces holding a bunch of poppies at the exit of the tunnel", according to the Football Association of Wales (FAW).

Who is going to ensure fans are not wearing poppies or other symbols?

DD