Protest is meaningless without risk. Without sacrifice. Without standing up for what you believe in spite of whatever consequences might come your way.
Iran’s national team showed England exactly what that means ahead of their opening World Cup game in Qatar.
By refusing to sing their national anthem, they drew the ire of an entire state and risked harm, imprisonment or worse.
They did so in steadfast support of the Mahsa Amini protests taking place across Iran regardless of how their country’s leaders might feel about it.
On the other side, England’s Football Association had decided, alongside six other European nations, that their captain Harry Kane would not be wearing the One Love armband featuring rainbow colours in support of the LGBT+ community.
FIFA threatened to issue instant yellow cards to captains donning that armband at kick-off. Tough. That’s what happens when the organisation you’re protesting doesn’t like it. They strong-arm you.
Looking back the great activists of sporting history faced worse than a yellow card and yet, they persisted.
Muhammad Ali was drafted to fight in the Vietnam War in 1966, refused to serve and was stripped of the heavyweight championship of the world. He spent more than three years away from the ring.
Colin Kaepernick effectively sacrificed the last few years of his NFL career by taking the knee in protest against racial injustice and police brutality. Ironic that the gesture he popularised was used by an England team that had just bowed to the whims of FIFA before the Iran match.
So much of the recent debate has emphasised sympathy for the players. They were thrown into the fire of a controversial World Cup by FIFA. We can’t blame them for Qatar’s human rights record. It’s not their fault. They’re just doing their job.
All of that may be true, but do individuals not have a responsibility to take a stand in moments like these? If Harry Kane’s personal commitment to this cause was strong enough, would he not have found a way to wear the armband, take the yellow card on the chin and make a powerful statement that he won’t just stand by and accept Qatar’s abhorrent laws?
Look no further than the Germany squad. No armband, no problem as they donned rainbows on their warm-up gear and boots ahead of their clash with Japan. So small a gesture the players made by covering their mouths for their team photo but the spotlight it drew was enormous.
Be it the football associations, the other players or the captains themselves, so many other people had a chance to make a similarly powerful statement. Netherlands skipper Virgil van Dijk said he doesn’t like playing on a yellow card.
Imagine the criticism FIFA would draw if one of the biggest stars in world football was booked at kick-off for standing up against homophobia, made a rash tackle early on in the game and got himself sent off.
Would the red card and subsequent suspension have massively hurt Dutch hopes of winning this World Cup? Absolutely.
Some moments are bigger than the sport on the pitch. England, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Denmark and Wales all shrunk.
