Defied Fifa’s no – former prime minister stepped in with this dress – NRK Sport – Sports news, results and broadcasting schedule

– It’s a great dress. I am absolutely sure that I will get in, says Helle Thorning-Schmidt to NRK in Qatar.

The former Danish prime minister thus defies Fifa’s rules that rainbow bandages are not allowed.

NRK saw that Thorning-Schmidt was allowed to enter the stadium with the dress. This is in stark contrast to the treatment that supporters and journalists have received in the first few days of the World Cup.

Wales’ Laura McAllister was barred from the opening game against the USA wearing a rainbow hat, while American journalist Grant Wall was denied entry after wearing a rainbow-effect T-shirt.

The Danish journalist Jon Pagh was also stopped by Qatari police after he had borrowed a “OneLove” armband during a TV feature for TV 2.

Fifa goes against its own rainbow rules

During a Teams meeting on 20 October with all FIFA World Cup rights holders, Fifa clarified which symbols were legal and which were not.

The image below shows Fifa’s training program for the security guards in Qatar. There you can clearly see that the rainbow symbol is one of several symbols that the security guards must allow. This has not been the case for a number of supporters in Qatar.

– I am completely exhausted. This joins the series of strange demonstrations of power that the organizers with support from Fifa have decided to engage in, says NRK’s ​​sports commentator Jan Petter Saltvedt.

– The whole World Cup becomes a form of prison where you can only go in the assigned prison uniforms. Even not entirely innocent symbols that we see as founding human rights are allowed, says Saltvedt.

NRK has contacted FIFA about why they have changed their regulations to rainbow bandages, so far without success.

– Really sad

Wall, who was stopped after his T-shirt was too political, says that his mobile phone was taken from him by a guard and that he was detained for 25 minutes.

It happened on the same day that Fifa made threats of sporting punishment if captains wore rainbow armbands during matches in the World Cup. Denmark also has no plans for this on Tuesday.

– It is really sad. DBU (the Danish Football Association) has fought from day one for something to happen in Fifa, says Thorning-Schmidt.

– I am happy for the seven confederations that have worked together on this, but now is perhaps the time to say that now we will play football. That does not mean that anyone is giving up the fight for LGBTQ+ rights to have a place in football. It should be remembered that there were only seven countries out of 211 member countries in Fifa who thought this was a good idea. I think DBU has fought a fair fight and I am also happy to fight, says the former prime minister to Ekstra Bladet and NRK, who have turned up at the stadium.