(Reuters) – England captain Millie Bright will wear armbands to support inclusion, indigenous people and gender equality during her country’s group stage matches at the Women’s World Cup.
Eight FIFA-sanctioned armbands have been made available to players for the tournament being staged in Australia and New Zealand.
The OneLove design that led to the governing body to threaten sanctions at the 2022 men’s World Cup in Qatar is not among those that can be chosen by players.
When England meet Haiti on Saturday, Bright will wear the ‘Unite for Inclusion’ armband.
She will switch to ‘Unite for Indigenous People’ for the second match against Denmark. In the final group game against China, she will wear the one stating ‘Unite for Gender Equality’.
“As a group, we felt really strongly about all the causes, and we couldn’t separate one from the other,” Bright said, adding that the team will support new causes if they advance to the knockout round.
“As a team, we know what we stand for, what we believe in and we also know the changes that we want to make.
“So regardless of an armband, we would like to think our actions and our morals represent everything that we believe in and stand for.”
The messages on the other five armbands read ‘Unite for Peace’, ‘Unite for Education for All’, ‘Unite for Zero Hunger’, ‘Unite for Ending Violence Against Women’ and ‘Football is Joy, Peace, Hope, Love and Passion’.
(Reporting by Tommy Lund in Gdansk, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
