The French captain, whilst at a press conference at the team’s training ground, stated, ‘when we are in France, when we welcome foreigners, we often want them to follow our rules, to respect our culture, and I will do the same when I go to Qatar, quite simply.’
In comparison to the fatalities suffered as a result of the infrastructure of the tournament, this is a pretty minor issue. The wider issue of sexual inequality is off-course bigger than football and the history and legislation that Qatar has with LGBTQ rights are shambolic, from a western viewpoint. FIFA has made it clear that teams must follow regulations surrounding uniforms, a regulation which doesn’t accommodate the display of the ‘One-Love’ campaigns rainbow armband, yet rather hypocritically article 3 of the FIFA Statutes says, ‘FIFA is committed to respecting all internationally recognised human rights and shall strive to promote the protection of these rights.’
Unlike Lloris, 13 different nations from Europe intend to defy FIFA regulations in wearing the armband, this will include Lloris’ Spurs teammate Harry Kane. The situation however has been made slightly larger than it should be. Hugo Lloris is not a politician, he’s a footballer, paid almost exclusively to stop shots and bring profits to whom he represents. Honestly, it is a fairly harmless statement from the French captain, who let us be honest, won’t care in the slightest what anyone thinks of him if he gets to lift the world cup twice in a row come the 18th of December.