Captains can wear a choice of eight armbands at the FIFA Women's World Cup

MANCHESTER, England : Captains will be permitted to wear armbands with messages about inclusion, gender equality and peace at the Women's World Cup, an about-face for FIFA after rainbow armbands were not allowed at the men's tournament last year in Qatar.

Team skippers will have the choice of eight different topics as part of FIFA's "Football Unites the World" campaign, selected in consultation with the 32 participating teams, players and United Nations agencies.

"After some very open talks with stakeholders, including member associations and players, we have decided to highlight a series of social causes – from inclusion to gender equality, from peace to ending hunger, from education to tackling domestic violence – during all 64 matches at the FIFA Women's World Cup," FIFA president Gianni Infantino said in a statement.

Seven of the armbands are "Unite for" either "Inclusion," which features a heart in a rainbow of colours, "Indigenous People," "Gender Equality," "Education for All," "End Violence Against Women," "Peace," and "Zero Hunger." An eighth armband is "Football is Joy, Peace, Hope, Love, Passion."

Men's team captains from England, Wales, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany and Denmark had planned to wear "OneLove" armbands at the men's World Cup to protest Qatar's laws against same-sex relationships.

In a joint statement, however, the federations from those countries said that FIFA had threatened to issue yellow cards to any player wearing it.

Infantino said in March that FIFA had learned from the "OneLove" armband fiasco, and promised a solution for the women's global tournament which kicks off July 20 in Australia and New Zealand and is expected to be followed by over two billion people globally.

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