Virgil van Dijk has defended his decision to not wear a 'OneLove' armband during the Netherlands' opening World Cup fixture against Senegal on Monday evening.
Louis van Gaal's side, along with six other European nations including England and Wales, backed down on their plans to show solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community hours before England's meeting with Iran yesterday afternoon.
A joint statement from Belgium, Denmark England, Germany, the Netherlands and Wales confirmed this decision was taken due to fears of 'sporting sanctions' from FIFA, who are opposed to form of political statements on official kits.
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A yellow card was reported to be a possible punishment for captains choosing to wear the 'OneLove' armband, which Van Dijk has admitted was a risk he was not willing to take.
“I play in a position where a yellow card is not useful," the Liverpool defender told NOS. He added: "I became a football player and I want to play these kind of tournaments. There are people who say we don’t have a backbone, but that’s not how it works. We just want to play football. I would have loved to play with that band, but not at the expense of a yellow card.”
Van Dijk had earlier outlined his intention to wear the armband, before the joint statement was released. Speaking on Monday he said: "I will wear the OneLove armband tomorrow. Nothing changed from our point of view. If I will get a yellow card for wearing it then we would have to discuss it because I don't like to play while being on a yellow."
Gareth Southgate was also asked to explain why England did not show the courage to defy FIFA, to which he responded: "The armband is not something the players or myself have been involved in the last 24 hours. The discussions have been ongoing between several European nations and FIFA. I understand FIFA’s situation in that you can set a precedent and where do you draw a line.
“In an ideal world that would be a much clearer situation much earlier but we had to focus on the football. People know what we stand for."
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