(Reuters) – Virgin Atlantic’s gender-neutral uniform policy did not apply for crew on board the England team’s flight to the World Cup in Qatar.
The airline removed the requirement for its employees to wear gendered uniform options, it said in September, explaining they could “wear the clothing that expresses how they identify or present themselves”.
This, however, did not apply to the crew who attended coach Gareth Southgate’s squad on Tuesday’s flight to the World Cup.
“Initially UK, U.S. and Israel are the territories where the uniform policy is being rolled out for our people,” a Virgin Atlantic spokeswoman told the BBC.
“Those countries are more accepting of non-binary identities allowing more self-expression,” she added.
Some soccer players have raised concerns over the rights of fans travelling to the tournament, especially LGBT+ individuals and women, whom rights groups say Qatari laws discriminate against.
England flew to Doha on a plane named “Rain Bow”, which featured an image of a man holding a union flag and wearing rainbow-coloured trainers.
The Football Association said that it did not choose the aircraft, the BBC reported, but it was happy to fly on it.
(Reporting by Anita Kobylinska in Gdansk; Editing by Toby Davis)
