FIFA may be in charge of governing football across the globe, but lately the leading authority has been involved in a great deal of corruption and scandal creating a negative image for the organization and world football in general. In fact, in terms of morality FIFA has little ground to stand on but yet it did not announce that England, Scotland, and Wales football teams should not place poppies on their shirts over the weekend because it would be a political symbol that does not adhere to the standards of keeping football a neutral sport.
However, despite the claims by FIFA not too many people seemed actually concerned about the idea of the UK teams wearing poppies given the fact that most would not even likely notice. FIFA claimed that doing so would offend the Germans in the future if England were to play against their national team, but a senior football official in Germany stated that the German Federation would have no problem with this occurrence and that they would not be offended by the issue. Despite this fact FIFA seems to have a problem with the simple poppy symbol that they do not seem willing to give up.
According to FIFA the poppy is too political controversial to be worn on the shirts, but in fact the poppy is actually the opposite of a symbol of politics as it is not meant to stand for any nation, party, or even class. Instead, the poppy is supposed to be worn to help honour those who have died in past wars fighting to protect Britain. The UK is not the only country that uses the poppy as its symbol of veteran remembrance as Canada also distributed poppies to help remember their fallen soldiers on Remembrance Day.
David Cameron himself stated that the poppy is not meant to be an issue of the right, left, Conservative, or Labour but that is instead something that can be worn to help show gratitude towards those that have served their country faithfully. It is meant to be something that unites the country which is why it is so odd that the FIFA organization that is supposed to be based in neutral Switzerland would have such a large problem with the England team wearing the poppies in remembrance in their game against Spain the day before Remembrance Sunday actually takes place. More ironic is the fact that the England team is playing on British soil and must listen to what is instructed to them by FIFA in Zurich.
It should not be too much of a surprise that FIFA is corrupt however given the fact that their Bureaucrat-In-Chief is a Frenchman named Jerome Valcke who serves as a general secretary with quite a spotted history. In 2004 he was found guilty by a New York City judge of a sponsor agreement with VISA even though FIFA is supposed to have an exclusive contract with MasterCard and fined a large $60 million as a result with the entire organization still standing behind him.
What is ironic is that FIFA has taken such a harsh attitude over the issue when the team had the good graces to make them aware of their decision to wear the poppies in the first place. Most likely, had England not said anything and simply showed up at the game wearing the poppies there is a very good chance that their choice would not have even been noticed. Even if it had there would not have been any time to change it anyhow and likely the entire issue would have been void.