Great to hear they have seen sense on the issue . I for one was deeply offended by their earlier stance on the matter .
Good !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i would have loved a special england shirt to be produced with a massive red poppy on the front...should have sent a message to the world.
People will call this a victory for 'common sense'. There's been no common sense in the way people have gone on about this all week. It's as if we can't remember, or show respect, without England having a poppy on their shirts. The people moaning about this all week are the people who have done the most damage to the cause of remembrance day, they have diverted the attention from the people we should be remembering towards Fifa.
Who are Fifa to decide who is "right" though? Would you be happy if a country such as Zimbabwe displayed a symbol on their kit to remember the deaths of butchers who hacked women and children to death? Similarly, I imagine that some people in Iraq and Afghanistan might not be too happy about what the poppy represents.
It doesn't change that many may not be happy about what the poppy symbolises, and that it potentially paves the way for logos/symbols which we would not want to see on football shirts. Of course, i'm not at all against displaying poppies on shirts, I think it is a fairly good gesture but not one that is too important in the grand scheme of the occasion. I think the issue was blown out of all proportion and has taken a lot more away from the occasion than a small poppy on an armband will add.
Speaking as someone who does support the appeal, as they go to support and remember the families of British soldiers affected by every conflict since WWI it's not as simple as that because there's more politics than "they fought the Nazis" to consider. During the Spanish civil war for example, whilst the official policy/advise to the public was that we were neutral we allowed General Franco to set up a communication base in Gibraltar, had Royal Navy ships spying on his enemy, and allowed Nazi planes to fly in our airspace over Gibraltar to assist in the transportation of fascist troops from Africa to Spain so that he would win the war and not his opponent. As we're due to play Spain in the game you could just as easily find there's Spaniards who wouldn't be all that chuffed at seeing troops who fought against their anti-fascist grandparents being honoured. Of course for the purposes of promoting the campaign they'll not mention the bits about us supporting fascist dictators, in much the same way that Americans don't like reminding about the support they gave Afghans when they were fighting the Russians, or we don't like it being made too public that the weapons (particularly gas) used by Gaddafi on his own people was supplied by us. EDIT: I should point out I'm not having a go at the troops for having supported the fascists in the Spanish Civil War. The decision was taken by those above who decided it was best to educate the population (civilian and military) about how fascism was so much better than communism in a "my enemy's enemy is my friend" kind of way, and as such the appeal not highlighting this fascist supporting side to things is acceptable. It's the lack of coverage of our mistakes through history that's off with it and causes the misunderstandings of situations.
So who got FIFA to change their mind? Was it: 1. David Cameron 2. Prince William 3. Two members of the EDL on their Zurich rooftop? Hmmm...
They haven't changed their minds, or the rules, we're still not wearing shirts with a poppy on. It's called a loophole, and somebody at FIFA has obviously been going through the rules looking for it since we made our application which was against the rules.
Spain certainly seemed better off under Fascism than the countries which suffered under communism. I went to Spain and communist countries whilst France was alive and Communism was still in charge in Eastern Europe in the early 1970's and would have much preferred to live in Spain. For one thing if you didn't like it in Spain you could leave, something those stuck behind the iron curtain didn't get a chance to do. and after the fall of Franco Spain was able torebuild and get on with things a lot better and more easily than the likes of Albania, Romania, Bulgaria etc.. And who cares about what Spaniards think about their anti-fascist grandparents? Do you give a damn about what a lot of Spaniards think about their pro-fascist grandparents and parents? Do you care about all those who were murdered, tortured and imprisoned in various countries for being anti-communist. We are very lucky we've never been faced with these dillemmas, mainly because of the people who we are commemorating by the wearing of a poppy. Anyway, going back to the poppy, which incidentally was an American idea originally, to me it represents the work of the British Legion which is there to raise funds to help those injured in the armed forces in the service of this country (not just this country but all those commonwealth countries whose citizens als fought on our side in various conflicts). If Sepp Blatter thinks that the wearing of a poppy is commercial, poltical etc, the reasons given for saying it should not be allowed, then he is a bigger idiot than I previously thought. Does any one object to the 5 Olympic rings which was something thought up for the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany?
We have multi-culturism and racial appeasement thrown at us by every ****ing do-gooder who can still climb on a soap-box; so, can some bleeding heart tell me just why a poopy should be discriminated against - I am sure there are countries out there who would gladly endorse it, seen as they make countless millions and untold misery growing and distributing the despicable flower. Before anyone jumps on me, I support the British Legion and all of the other well-minded folk; but just like the word 'gay' changed to mean something uncomfortable for some, the poppy is a flower of dubious reputation; but great and simple beauty.
I think you're missing the point about the 'enemy of my enemy' comment. Whether or not fascism was better than communism was irrelevent. We shouldn't have been supporting either nasty system. By assisting the fascists in Spain we were on the same side as the Nazis who were using the Spanish civil war as an opportunity to refine blitzkrieg tactics, which were then used against the rest of Europe. It pissed people off enough when McDonalds was funding the IRA, can you imagine the feeling we'd have towards American's if they invited us over for a game and proceeded to have a ceremony and be playing in special kits to remember their troops if they'd been helping the Nazis to take over the UK just because they weren't communists? On the FIFA/poppy front, they didn't claim it was commercial. They stated the rule which rules out anything political or commercial, the commercial was only there because it's the same rule, and whether it's right or wrong it clearly is political if funds are only provided to soldiers injured on one side of the fighting. (and no, I'm not suggesting we should be giving money to the enemy combatants, I'm just saying by not doing it it makes it political) I suspect if this carries on too much longer the thread will be getting locked though. We're not supposed to discuss politics outside of a direct link with the club and it's pretty hard to discuss whether something is correctly described as political without getting into the politics of it.
Its a small red flower that was found on battlefields in the Great War 1914-1918 and is used as a remembrance symbol. Not sure what the Portuguese equivalent would be.
imo, the FA should just have done the shirts with poppies on and not said anything. to hell with fifa. we invented the game and the Poppy in no way infringes any of fifa's stupid rules and regulations.
