The truth about the World Cup

You have to admire their bravery, don’t you? The stoicism with which they put up a fight in the name of principle and decency. The England football manager, Gareth Southgate, and his similarly equine captain, Harry Kane, had pledged that the latter would wear, throughout England’s World Cup campaign, a rainbow ‘One Love’ armband to show the team’s support for the LGBTQI community, despite objections from football’s governing body, Fifa. Nothing could stop them from displaying to the world their deep discomfort at the fact that the World Cup was being played in a place where homosexuality was illegal.

And then, when Fifa announced that anyone wearing the armband would be booked and the team fined, Mr Southgate made the following announcement: ‘As you know, it was our intention for the team captain to wear a rainbow One Love armband to show our deep commitment to the cause of inclusivity and LGBTQI rights in Qatar and indeed the wider world.