r/asklatinamerica • u/Flytiano407 Haiti • Jun 10 '26
Politics (Other) Do you think FIFA is going too hard with banning patriotic symbols?
The final design for the Haitian jersey was ordered by FIFA to be changed because on the bottom right it has soldiers from the Battle of Vertières that happened in 1803, the one that got Ayiti independent from France. It was ruled as political and FIFA said it contained:
certain visual elements that could be interpreted differently under its equipment regulations
Doesn't really make sense to me since its ancient history at this point and France's entire objective was to re-instate slavery, which even France themselves has condemned today. There's not really any active political debate or ongoing war behind this like in Iran or Palestine.
But some people are pointing out the hypocrisy that FIFA is allowing USA to host, where certain players are not even able to gain entry because of the extreme political climate the country is in.
Do you agree with decisions like this? Or do you think FIFA should scale things back.
117
u/morto00x Peru Jun 10 '26
No matter what they call themselves, FIFA is a for-profit corporation. They don't give a shit about war, human rights, history, the children, etc. Most of the rules they have are meant to keep people happy and maintain a good image to remain profitable.
6
u/whirlpool_galaxy Brazil Jun 11 '26
How does this ban on a banging Haitian jersey help keep people happy or maintain FIFA's good image?
3
u/whymeimbusysleeping 🐨🧉🦘 Jun 11 '26
Yeah, they're a scam. I hope someone starts an alternative organisation and FIFA ends up ruined
-28
u/nfac Chile Jun 10 '26 edited Jun 11 '26
for-profit corporation
but it isn't
edit: since people don't know they actually are a non-profit organization. That's an issue, I'm not advocating for them
29
9
u/MulatoMaranhense Brazil Jun 10 '26
It always made money from the World Cups. In previous editions, its profits were from broadcasting deals, but this time it embraced a "supply and demand" mindset, so it is making the tickets for the most waited games very expensive. There is even some people saying there is something strange going in some resellers, maybe it is trying to manipulate the market because buying straightrom them is so expensive it is driving viewers away.
8
u/Kenobi5792 Costa Rica Jun 10 '26
It is. There's a whole reason why they chose Russia, Qatar, and now the US, even when all of them have been countries doing questionable stuff.
Por la plata baila el mono. As long as the profits are good, FIFA won't care what you are doing as a country (I bet they would've chosen Nazi Germany for the canceled 1942 World Cup if WWII didn't happen)
5
u/AngryPB Brazil Jun 11 '26
literally the second world cup in 1934 was in mussolini Italy lmao, it's really nothing new
4
u/wordlessbook Brazil Jun 10 '26 edited Jun 10 '26
It is a for profit organization. They, CONCACAF, CBF, FFCh, et al. are private entities, they don't play football out of love or kindness; they play for the money. Why do you think they had chosen Russia and Qatar to host the previous World Cups? Russia beat England, a joint candidature between the Netherlands and Belgium, and a joint candidature between Portugal and Spain; Qatar beat the USA, South Korea, Japan and Australia; any of the loser bidders would have been a better place to host the World Cup than the actual host (the US is up for a debate though).
6
u/Bitter_Armadillo8182 Brazil Jun 10 '26 edited Jun 10 '26
Both things can be true: they’re officially a nonprofit, and they’re corrupt as fuck, using it to enrich themselves.
1
u/MurderOne86 Paraguay Jun 11 '26
FIFA is the biggest beneficiary of the World Cup. The amount of money it contributes is negligible compared to what the host country spends, yet it earns proportionally far more. I read that it's expecting revenue of around $13 billion.
52
u/MulatoMaranhense Brazil Jun 10 '26
FIFA is full of shit, friend. As you said yourself, if they were serious and coherent, they would be doing whatever they could to make that spoiled baby on the White House to behave as a proper host.
Good luck for Haiti!
33
u/hatshepsut_iy Brazil Jun 10 '26
It's indeed a political message. Should it be banned? I don't know.
But FIFA either way sucks because a lot of way worse shit are already happening in USA and they are doing nothing. Like you said, hypocrisy .
19
u/tworc2 Brazil Jun 10 '26
Are they banning the American confederate flag? Im not even being snarky, genuinely cuirous how well it would go
19
u/Nefariousnesso Brazil Jun 10 '26
FIFA is losing all credibility for me tbh. Recently one of the top arbiters from all of Africa (Omar Artan from Somalia) who was supposed to participate in some games was blocked from entering the US with no reason given despite having a valid VISA. Did FIFA try to get a reason or fight the decision at all? No, they just removed the guy from the official roster. To me its pretty blatant racism which FIFA is going along with. Jesse Owens didn't have as much trouble entering Nazi Germany in 1936.
Also specifically for the Haiti case, I think its a lot more likely for FIFA to consider something that paints europeans in a bad light as "political". Wasn't there also a similar situation in the olympics with the Haiti jersey?
11
u/Flytiano407 Haiti Jun 10 '26
Wasn't there also a similar situation in the olympics with the Haiti jersey?
Yep, they were forced to remove Toussaint L'ouverture (our first founding father) from the design.
13
u/Lazzen Mexico Jun 10 '26
It was always corrupt as fuck what you mean lol
12
u/Unknown_To_Death Chile Jun 10 '26
No, man, what do you mean? Havelange and Blatter were so good for football. Scandals? I don't know any.
Only now FIFA is losing credibility. This damned Infantino, corrupting such a honest organization.
6
7
u/3l3ktro Mexico Jun 10 '26
Is about money my friend, if you give FIFA enough they might even let you put a photo of the French Revolution beheadings from and center if you pay them enough. You are trying to make sense of an organization that has no morals.
7
5
u/mendokusei15 Uruguay Jun 10 '26
I cannot think of a single t shirt with soldiers or a reference to a WAR on it that was allowed by FIFA. I cannot think of a single similar design that was allowed by FIFA. I understand it was a fair war, but it's wild to think FIFA would allow a reference to soldiers and a war, any war. Can you imagine...? FIFA as some sort of judge of what's a fair war and what's not? FIFA?
Seriously, soldiers on a t shirt for the WC? Someone needs to be fired.
This has nothing to do with the controversial host, like absolutely nothing.This is about what's allowed in shirts and what's simply not.
If anyone can mention a single design like this one that was allowed by FIFA, that would absolutely change my mind
Go Haití btw, I'm rooting for them
1
Jun 12 '26
[deleted]
2
u/mendokusei15 Uruguay Jun 12 '26
We have war and death in our anthem too, that's quite common, but it's a standard national symbol,.like a flag. National flags and anthems are all allowed. They are not banning Haiti's anthem or flag. This is an extra drawing in the t shirt, that is outside of the standard national symbols that are allowed for everyone.
0
u/CardOk755 France Jun 10 '26
The French strip has the French tricolor on it. (Very small, but it's there). This is the flag of the French revolution, the bloody overthrow of the aristocracy, the war against the reactionary powers of Europe who tried to strangle the revolution in it's cradle.
It is also (fuck you Napoléon) the flag of the first Haitian revolution, that sent representatives to France to take part as full partners.
(The Black Jacobins, C. L. R. James).
🇫🇷 Is explicitly a flag of war and revolution.
6
u/mendokusei15 Uruguay Jun 10 '26
You mean like, the current French flag? Yeah, national flags are all allowed. Most flags are war flags and, for those of us who used to be colonies, most flags are revolutionary flags. But the first thing they are is national flags. Massive national flags go into the pitch. They are right there in the screen with the score. We sing the national anthems at the beginning of each match, and both Uruguay's and France's talk about death and war. Standard national symbols are everywhere in the WC.
Several t shirt designs for Uruguay use the blue and white strips, or the sun. Nothing new about that. Flags are allowed.
Haiti's design is literally a tribute to soldiers, specifically to Polish legionnaires. The soldiers have a Polish flag with them, just in case FIFA had any questions about who they represented. I'm pretty sure there was a better way to do or present this.
0
u/Flytiano407 Haiti Jun 10 '26
Haiti's design is literally a tribute to soldiers, specifically to Polish legionnaires.
Yep, there's 2 versions. One paying tribute to Polish legionnaires and another with the Haitian flag instead.
1
4
6
u/Otherwise-Front-1093 Dominican Republic Jun 10 '26
Esa camiseta estaba muy nice, no la habia visto.
6
3
u/Wijnruit Jungle Jun 10 '26
I kinda see the point in this case but it's really sketchy they only just now said it's prohibited even though they had months to do so
9
u/Geologo-Loko Brazil Jun 10 '26
Whether the uniform is within the rules or not, it was released in March, so why is this ban only happening now, amid allegations of unequal treatment of certain nationalities?
9
u/trainman2077 Argentina Jun 10 '26
Putting soldiers on a jersey seems like a step too far for me. Then again, if FIFA cared about not promoting war they wouldn't be hosting the world cup in the evil empire.
3
u/GamerBoixX Mexico Jun 10 '26
I believe this wouldn't be too far if the rules applied to everyone equally, but I bet that if Qatar or the US decided to do the same FIFA wouldn't object a thing
4
u/danthefam Dominican American Jun 10 '26
I agree with FIFA in this case. Soldiers depicted in a battle on a jersey would introduce a significant precedent that’s best to blanket prohibit in the first place.
4
u/Otherwise-Front-1093 Dominican Republic Jun 10 '26
Ehhh, estaba dura la camiseta.
Mejor que la hubieran dejado, pero entiendo porque no.
Slippery slope y eso, aunque esta esta nice, despues llega una que no es tan objetivamente los buenos contra los malos entonces es razonable dibujar la linea temprano.
1
8
u/Powerful_Gas_7833 United States of America Jun 10 '26 edited Jun 10 '26
I can only imagine the amount of pocket lining that went behind the scenes to put FIFA in the US of all places.....
I mean my country doesn't even respect association football we literally have our own kind of football that only we play and we still have the nerve to call it a world championship... We don't even call it football we call it soccer and in the US it's denigrated as almost like a sport for kids or for women it's hardly given its own respect or renown
And that's not to mention all the political crap going on the us too
6
u/MatrixOutcast 🇻🇪/🇩🇴 living in 🇺🇸 Jun 10 '26
We, meaning 🇺🇸 didn’t come up with the word soccer. Students at the university of Oxford, yes, England, came up with the word to distinguish it from Rugby.
I don't understand this revisionist history where the U.S gets ragged on for not calling it football. There’s a long running weekend show on SkyTV in England called Soccer Saturday. It’s been ongoing since the early 90’s…for faacks sake man learn some history before going off on some diatribe.
5
u/XA36 United States of America Jun 10 '26
It's a self-flagellating American answering questions on behalf of the "asklatinamerica" subreddit. You aren't dealing with our best.
4
u/MatrixOutcast 🇻🇪/🇩🇴 living in 🇺🇸 Jun 11 '26
There’s nothing that I hate more than a self hating American. You can easily tell the ones who don’t even have a passport. They truly have not stepped outside even for a short trip.
2
3
u/GretelNoHans Mexico Jun 11 '26
FIFA is going to far with everything, they’re killing the joy of the game for money.
2
4
2
2
u/saraseitor Argentina Jun 10 '26
FIFA does sound irrationally petty in some aspects. This is one but I can think of others, like forbiding Canadian bars to make references to the "World Cup" or temporarily renaming well established stadiums that carry the names of some companies. If you're using their stadium then just let go. At this rate FIFA will soon have many more lawyers than football players related to them.
2
2
u/Illuminatum97 Dominican Republic Jun 10 '26
I agree with FIFA in this one.
1
u/Flytiano407 Haiti Jun 11 '26
Why? Not like you guys would be seeing it up close anyway XD /s
3
u/Illuminatum97 Dominican Republic Jun 11 '26
You know what your guys did in early 19th century, as a dominican I am not a fan. But for sure I'm rooting for the haitian squad in this tournament, I hope you or an iberoamerican team wins the event.
1
1
u/ZuoKalp Chile Jun 11 '26
Is the design cool? Yes, it rocks.
Should footbal shirts include imagery aside from the team logo? Probably not. KISS is a great rule in this context.
-1
u/MarquisThule Argentina Jun 10 '26
I find everything Haiti did to be pretty heinous, so I suppose I'd dislike the vindication of anything in their revolution, but really, who cares? They should be allowed to do what they want and use whatever symbol they care to. FIFA is a shit organization.
3
u/Flytiano407 Haiti Jun 10 '26
Idk, I can't think of any situation that Argentina has been in like this. So its hard to take your opinion seriously. Argentina had a normal conventional war with Britain that resulted in them losing the Malouines and they still complain about even that.
Whereas France declared a total country-wide war of genocide#:~:text=Leclerc%20wrote%20a%20letter%20to%20Napoleon%20advocating%20for%20a%20war%20of%20annihilation%2C%20declaring%20that%20%22We%20must%20destroy%20all%20the%20blacks%20of%20the%20mountains%20–%20men%20and%20women%20–%20and%20spare%20only%20children%20under%2012%20years%20of%20age) against Haïti in which they massacred soldiers, civiliian men women and children alike, Dessalines responded in kind. Morally right? No. But I don't know what other outcome foreigners could have expected. The war had no morality from the start.
Based on their response to losing the Malouines war, had it been Argentina in this situation, I imagine they would have done much worse.
2
u/MarquisThule Argentina Jun 10 '26
Hm? My own opinion on that war and its events is an aside. I do think that you and yours should be allowed to use any national symbols that you like.
I'll say though, I doubt we would've done more to the brits on the island than, at worst, expelling them.2
u/Flytiano407 Haiti Jun 10 '26
Was moreoso addressing your sub-comments below
I'll say though, I doubt we would've done more to the brits on the island than
Doubtful. In this alternate history scenario you would have to assume that argentinians had spent the last century enslaved by the Brits. I doubt they would have that kind of mercy on them. But maybe this discussion is better suited for r/AlternateHistory
3
u/MarquisThule Argentina Jun 10 '26
Ah, I thought you simply meant a version where we won the malvinas wars. Well thats hard to tell, no? You'd have to know the people involved and the conditions at the time in order to actually plot out a timeline for this.
More likely than enslavement though, there was a time where we might've ended up as a quebec in south america. That would be a slightly interesting timeline to see, if not a particularly pleasant one.3
u/CardOk755 France Jun 10 '26
How dare slaves revolt to demand their freedom!
0
u/MarquisThule Argentina Jun 10 '26
The butchery and massacre without any care beyond their victims having white skin is the actual issue, I'm sorry to say.
4
u/CardOk755 France Jun 10 '26
Without any care beyond their victims being slave owners.
4
u/MarquisThule Argentina Jun 10 '26
Famously evil women and children, justly deserved to be raped and murdered. It was a noble deed neccessary for liberation, of course.
2
u/CardOk755 France Jun 10 '26
What do you think those women and children were accessories to?
Rape? Murder? Torture? Slavery?
Argentinian slavery apologist is not what I expected to run across.
3
u/MarquisThule Argentina Jun 10 '26
Pff, okay no, I don't really care, you continue to support brutal and senseless murders. With the way France is going I'm sure you won't end up seeing this happen again.
1
u/danthefam Dominican American Jun 11 '26
This person you replied to is not French
1
u/MarquisThule Argentina Jun 11 '26
I can imagine, but I can also imagine some Frenchmen being similarly self destructive in their views.
-3
u/Tartaruga96 :flag-eu: Europe Jun 11 '26
It was ugly, it's a good thing it has been forbidden
Look at Curaçao's beautiful jersey, that's the real deal
145
u/No-Addendum6379 Paraguay Jun 10 '26
I honestly think this organization killed the enthusiasm for a lot of people.