Tuesday, June 22, 2021 at 7:34 PM• Last update: 19:49

Georginio Wijnaldum will wear a special OneLove captain’s armband during the eighth finals of the European Championship in Budapest next Sunday. With the captain’s armband, the Dutch national team wants to emphasize in the words of Wijnaldum that the players stand for ‘inclusiveness and connection’. Lately, there has been a lot of work to be done over a controversial anti-gay law, which was passed by the Hungarian parliament last week.

This law prohibits the ‘promotion’ of homosexuality in Hungary. This means that in places where minors are present, there should be no references to gay people and transgender people. In recent days, the pressure has been slowly but surely increased for the the Dutch to make a statement in Hungary, where the eighth final will be played next Sunday. “We haven’t talked about it yet. We are only concerned with football here,” said national coach Frank de Boer.

That reaction went down the wrong way with Marieke Derksen, among others, who is somewhat connected to the football world as the publisher of the bestsellers Gijp and Kieft. She called De Boer’s statements a ‘cock-cake statement’. So now it has been decided that Wijnaldum will wear a OneLove captain’s armband in Budapest on Sunday. In November 2020, the the Dutch squad already wore shirts with the OneLove logo for the practice match against Spain, while the logo was also on the shirt during the World Cup qualifying and practice matches in March, May and June.

“By wearing this band, we as the Dutch want to emphasize that we stand for inclusivity and connection. We are against any form of exclusion and discrimination. We hope in this way to support everyone who feels discriminated against anywhere in the world,” Wijnaldum said in a response to the KNVB’s website. German captain Manuel Neuer also wore a rainbow captain’s armband during the friendly against Latvia and the first European Championship matches against France and Portugal. UEFA did not give permission to illuminate the Allianz Arena in rainbow colors on Wednesday during the game between Germany and Hungary.

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