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Ten countries embrace the Dutch OneLove campaign

KNVB Media
KNVB Media
21 September 2022, 12:00

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Captains of the national teams of Belgium, Denmark, Germany, England, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Wales, Sweden and Swiss will wear the OneLove armband in their upcoming games. - Foto: KNVB

The captains of the national teams of Belgium, Denmark, Germany, England, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Wales, Sweden and Swiss will wear the OneLove armband in their upcoming games. OneLove initially started as a campaign by the Dutch Football Association which emphasizes on the fact that all football fans have one thing in common: their love for football. With this message the creators want to express their support for unification of all people and at the same time they want to speak out against all forms of discrimination.

Holland captain Virgil van Dijk: “This is an important message which suits the game of football: on the field everybody is equal and this should be the case in every place in society. With the OneLove band we express this message. On behalf of the Dutch team I have been wearing this band for quite a while now. It is good to see that other countries are joining this initiative.”

Sweden and Norway will join the initiative only during the UEFA Nations League matches since they didn’t qualify fort he FIFA World Cup. Due to alternate plans to mark the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, England will not wear the armband in September but adopt OneLove at the FIFA World Cup. The captains of the seven other countries will wear the OneLove armband in their upcoming games for the UEFA Nations League and the FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

'Football has the power to unite people'

The international caption for One Love is ‘Football has the power to unite people’. This is a paraphrase of the wellknown quote by Nelson Mandela about sports. Apart from being a anti-apartheid activist and a politician Mandela was wellknown to be a great sports fan. The colours of the heart in the logo represent everyone’s pride of their heritage, race, gender identity and sexual orientation.

This is an important message which suits the game of football: on the field everybody is equal and this should be the case in every place in society

OneLove started in The Netherlands at the beginning of the football season in 2020 with a statement that invited everybody to join the football family. The statement spoke out against any form of discrimination. It emphasized that football unites millions of people all around the world from all places in society. That message was shown on boardings and other advertising boards in football stadiums where the Dutch team played their games. The OneLove logo was also worn on the match shirts during the Cup Final in Holland played by Ajax and PSV. Furthermore, OneLove appeared in advertisement in newspapers and videos with advertising purposes.

And on March 11th of this year eleven players from the Dutch men’s and women’s team were able to inspire football fans with their personal quotes regarding this matter. This was shown on abris and through social media posts. At the moment, the OneLove captainbands have been worn by the captains of the several Dutch teams, captains from every team in the national leagues and many captains playing for teams in the grassroots leagues. After all, a captain carries the responsibility to be a rolemodel on every level.

Online platform

Starting last year, OneLove has developed from being just a campaign into a professional programm which focuses on offering trainings regarding the subject of diversity to grassroots clubs. Apart from that OneLove has also grown into being an online platform.

OneLove is a part of Ons Voetbal is van Iedereen (which translates as Our football belongs to everybody), a joint strategy to fight against rascism in football. Parties behind Ons Voetbal is van iedereen are the Dutch Football Association and the Dutch government as well as representatives of the two national leagues for men Eredivisie CV and Keuken Kampioen Divisie and representatives of the national league for woman, the Azerion Vrouwen Eredivisie. The plan contains twenty parts and focuses on four key assets: awareness, identify, sanctioning and cooperation.

On Thursday September 22 the Dutch team will play in Warsaw against Polen. Following that game the will play against Belgium on Sunday the 25th of September in the Johan Cruyff Arena in Amsterdam. This will be the last game for the UEFA Nations League. Both games will start at 8.45 PM. The World Cup in Qatar will kick off on November the 20th.

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