Newcastle United legend Alan Shearer gives seven-word verdict on World Cup OneLove armband ban

Newcastle United legend Alan Shearer gave a clear seven-word verdict after the English Football Association backtracked on plans for England captain Harry Kane to wear a OneLove armband in support of LGBTQ+ rights while playing in Qatar.

The World Cup host country has some of the world's worst human rights records with homosexuality illegal under Qatari law and even punishable by death. A total of ten European nations - England, Wales, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the Netherlands - were due to sport the OneLove armband to challenge the appalling Qatari laws.

However, in a last-minute u-turn, the FA scrapped those plans citing their reasoning as FIFA's threat to replace fines with yellow and red cards for players - although this had always been a possibility.

Working as a pundit for the BBC ahead of England's meeting with Iran, Alan Shearer wasted no time in confronting the issue. In a seven-word verdict, Shearer said: "It would have been a huge statement."

He also added: "I don't think it's fair on the players having to deal with this on the morning of the game. They've done incredible work off the pitch, a lot of the England players and manager, including during the pandemic.

"The FA knew it was in the rule book that they weren't allowed to wear the armband. It's not fair on the players having to deal with this before one of the biggest games they will ever play, the morning of a World Cup game. All the players should be thinking about now is how they are going to win this game."

In a joint statement about the OneLove armband, the FA said: "FIFA has been very clear that it will impose sporting sanctions if our captains wear the armbands on the field of play. As national federations, we can’t put our players in a position where they could face sporting sanctions including bookings, so we have asked the captains not to attempt to wear the armbands in FIFA World Cup games," the joint statement from the Football Associations of England, Wales, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, The Netherlands and Switzerland read.

"We are very frustrated by the FIFA decision which we believe is unprecedented - we wrote to FIFA in September informing them of our wish to wear the One Love armband to actively support inclusion in football, and had no response”.