Holland manager Louis van Gaal slams Fifa over One Love armband snub after threats of yellow cards to captains
LOUIS VAN GAAL has attacked Fifa for threatening to book players for wearing the OneLove armband.
A number of captains at the World Cup wanted to wear the antidiscrimination symbol including England captain Harry Kane and Holland’s Virgil van Dijk.
GettyThis is van Gaal’s third spell in charge of the national side[/caption]
But the threat of disciplinary action saw them back down which Van Gaal clearly believes was wrong by football’s world governing body.
Van Gaal said: “I no longer want to answer political questions, this is time to talk only about football but one thing is clear we are not going to wear an armband if you are going to get a yellow card and we need to question if this is a correct act on behalf of Fifa.
“You can answer that question.
“We cannot have Virgil van Dijk on a yellow card. We are here to be world champions, that’s our purpose. All of us need to ask if this is a proper action on behalf of FIFA. That is crystal clear.”
READ MORE ON THE WORLD CUP
Van Gaa was speaking after Holland’s 2-0 win over Senegal courtesy of late goals from Cody Gapko and substitute Davy Klaassen.
On the eve of the game he had said he would no longer be drawn on political questions and had instructed his players not to be either.
Back in March he had slammed the decision for Qatar to be awarded this World Cup.
He said: “It’s ridiculous that the World Cup is there. Fifa says they want to develop football there. That’s bullshit. It’s about money, about commercial interests.”
Defeat to the Dutch means that Senegal will have to launch a rescue mission if they are to make it beyond the group stages.
Ecuador and Qatar come next in the African team’s schedule.
They will be hoping to have Cheikhou Kouyate back in the team after the midfielder sustained an unfortunate and painful injury.
