| Host nation: Qatar Dates: 20 November-18 December Coverage: Live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru, BBC Sounds and the BBC Sport website and app. Day-by-day TV listings - Full coverage details |
Mark Bullingham is the chief executive of the Football Association.
In order to promote diversity and inclusion, England, Wales, and five other European nations were going to wear an arm band.
After being threatened with sporting sanctions, they abandoned their plans.
The FA took the threat to mean that players could be banned.
"It was unlimited. They would take disciplinary action against any player that was wearing the armband on top of having a yellow card," he told ITV Sport.
In September, the governing bodies of England, Wales, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland wrote to the world governing body, but did not hear back.
"We had a lot of meetings with Fifa over that period and on Saturday before the game we felt we had an understanding where we would wear it," said Bullingham. We would have to pay a fine for it.
Two hours before we were due to go to the game, we were given 10 minutes' notice.
"They came here with five officials and ran us through a scenario where anyone wearing the armband would be booked and faceDisciplinary Action on top of that."
Germany's players covered their mouths for the team photo prior to their match against Japan in protest.
The German football federation said it was going to investigate the legality of the threat to sanction players for wearing the armband.
Although the Wembley arch was lit up in rainbow colors, the England players decided against further protest.
The Wembley Stadium arch will be lit up in rainbow colors for the match against the USA on Friday.
The FA was criticized by Pride in Football for not doing enough.
"Although appreciative of the gesture, responding with something miles away from Qatar is more a way of getting brownie points than creating change," the group wrote on Twitter.
Is it possible that this has been done because countries like Germany reacted to the breakdown of the captain? The reaction might have been more effective on Monday.
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