Fifa’s own goal

IT is a good job that Fifa’s jobsworths were not in any positions of power during two world wars – or Germany would never have been repelled. Yet, in refusing to allow the England team to wear poppies on their shirts when they play Spain next weekend on the eve of Remembrance Sunday, football’s governing body is insulting the memories of those players who died as heroes.

Players like the Harrogate-born Donald Simpson Bell who was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross for his courage during the Battle of the Somme in 1916 two years after helping, Bradford Park Avenue, win promotion to the old First Division. Many other players, it should be noted, were part of the Pals battalions that went into battle and, invariably, never returned to their preferred field of play.

However, rather than bowing to officialdom and Fifa’s rules governing the display of “political, religious and commercial messages” on international strips, England’s players and management should defy Fifa, wear the poppy with pride, and then see whether an out of touch Sepp Blatter dares to issue a red card of his own.

This is not about politics, religion or commercialism – it is about honouring the memory of those who made the ultimate sacrifice so that football could flourish once the guns had been silenced.