FIFA ban Belgium’s Tomorrowland kit over ‘rainbow’ trim

The World Cup’s festival of football is well and truly underway, but not without what seems like constant negativity surrounding cultural indifferences and strict rules around same-gender relationships.

Arguably the greatest show on earth, this year’s FIFA World Cup has been marred by several political debates and a resounding wave of opinions from players and professionals.

The latest in a string of disappointing events is FIFA’s decision to ban Belgium from wearing their newly released away shirts, made in collaboration with Tomorrowland and Adidas.

The decision comes as FIFA decided the kit contained elements representing the LGBTQ+ community, a part of western society that has been ignorantly condemed in its entirety at this year’s tournament.

What was intended to be a positive message of love and unity – Tomorrowland’s very slogan – has now become another spectacle of outdated and abhorent views that continue to envelop this year’s competition.

Whilst the rules have been set by the Qatar Federation, its government, and, to some extent, FIFA itself, the general consensus is that this sort of messaging completely opposes the vision of Football as a community-based and inclusive global sport.

For now, the Belgium national team has been told to remove the word ‘Love’ and the rainbow logo from its away kit. In response to this, they have elected to wear their home kit in all games of the group stage of the tournament, pending a decision around how to proceed and express their values if the team is to advance to the knockout portion of the tournament.

Lastly, as expected, Tomorrowland appear to have had a cryptic stab at the ridiculous decision from FIFA, posting their thoughts on Instagram:

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A post shared by Tomorrowland (@tomorrowland)

Earlier this week, Ex-Wales football captain Laura McAllister was told to remove her rainbow bucket hat as she entered a World Cup stadium in Qatar for Wales’ opener against the USA. Ms McAllister then did what anyone other right-minded openly gay woman would have done and smuggled the hat into the stadium.