FIFA Denies Denmark’s Request to Train in ‘Human Rights for All’ Shirt at World Cup

The Danish team does not believe the message was a “political call,” which would be against FIFA’s rules.

FIFA denied the Danish Football Association’s (DBU) training shirts for the World Cup that said “human rights for all” on them, DBU chief executive Jakob Jensen told the Ritzau news agency on Thursday.

“We have today got a message from FIFA that the training shirts our players were to train in, where it would say ‘human rights for all’ at the stomach [of the shirt], have been rejected due to technical reasons, which is regrettable,” Jensen said. “We believe the message ‘human rights for all’ is universal and not a political call, but something everyone can support.”

FIFA have rejected Denmark's request to train at the World Cup in shirts reading "human rights for all", according to the Danish Football Association. pic.twitter.com/ZD5xQYZSgZ

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FIFA had previously told all the World Cup teams to “focus on football” for their training uniforms and to not include any “ideological or political” messages. 

The World Cup this year is in Qatar, which has a long history of human rights violations. Some of the criticism stems from the country’s treatment of its low-paid migrant workers, along with its criminalization of same-sex relationships. 

Denmark wanted to protest the country’s lack of human rights while playing in the World Cup this year.

FIFA has yet to respond about the Danish team’s uniforms.