Downing Street has accused the Football Association of equivocating over terrorism, as it criticised the decision to scale back the use of the Wembley arch for sending messages of solidarity.
The FA decided this week to restrict the occasions on which the arch on the national stadium is illuminated after the controversial decision to acknowledge the Hamas assault on Israel with only a minute’s silence.
Asked about the move on Thursday, the prime minister’s official spokesperson was highly critical. “There should be no room for equivocation when it comes to terrorism,” they said. “It’s right to stand by those affected and we were disappointed that they chose not to light it up in response to the attack in Israel.”
The FA has concluded that Wembley should be illuminated only for sporting and entertainment purposes, after its board reflected on its policy. Speaking last month, the FA’s chief executive, Mark Bullingham, said he “recognised the hurt” to the Jewish community caused by the decision to leave the arch unlit during England men’s friendly against Australia in the week after the Hamas attack.
FA sources insist that the change in policy will not lead to the organisation stepping back from supporting a range of campaigns and causes, and the possibility of the arch being lit as an act of solidarity has not been ruled out. But there has been a reversal of the approach that meant the arch was lit for a number of causes over recent years.
After the Russian invasion of Ukraine last year the arch was illuminated in the blue and yellow of the Ukrainian flag, and it displayed the colours of the French tricolour after the terror attacks in Paris in 2015. It has also been lit to support International Women’s Day and displayed the rainbow colours of the LGBTQI+ flag last year, after Fifa’s decision to ban England players from wearing rainbow armbands at the World Cup.
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In the week of the 7 October attacks the FA came under pressure to light the arch in the colours of the flag of Israel. It opted instead for a period of silence to honour those who died in the attacks and the Palestinian victims of Israel’s subsequent offensive. At the time, the government’s adviser on antisemitism, John Mann, said the decision showed that “Jews don’t count” and argued that the FA appeared out of its depth. “By saying it wants to avoid politics football has ended up playing politics,” he said.
The FA appears to have acknowledged that criticism in its new policy and by emphasising privately that Wembley is, primarily, a sport and entertainment venue, rather than a national monument.
