Dale Vince accuses the English FA of ‘hypocrisy’ after response from them

Dale Vince accuses the English FA of ‘hypocrisy’ having received a response from them on a block made against Forest Green Rovers.

The chairman says the Football Association prevented his side from wearing Just Stop Oil shirts before their FA Cup tie against South Shields in November, deeming it to be a political message.

England are one of seven countries who have been threatened with “unlimited” sporting sanctions by FIFA if they had worn an anti-discrimination armband at the World Cup, and Vince believes there are parallels between the cases.

The @FA complain loud and proud about FIFA preventing the One Love armband being worn in Qatar and complain of their unlimited sanctions threat. Weeks earlier they prevented ‘just stop oil’ shirts being worn by FGR in the first round of the cup – with unlimited sanctions threat. pic.twitter.com/eZNGiC31sU

— Dale Vince (@DaleVince) November 26, 2022

Joined the BBC at half-time yesterday to talk about what we’re up to at @FGRFC_Official, and why we’re recognised as the world’s greenest football club. pic.twitter.com/SF5IJpdUlE

— Dale Vince (@DaleVince) November 27, 2022

He shared a letter he had written to FA chief executive Mark Bullingham on Twitter, saying he had seen the interview Bullingham gave about the threat of armband sanctions.

“I felt compelled to write to ask if you were aware that the FA itself acted in the same fashion towards FGR as FIFA have towards the FA,” he wrote.

“Just Stop Oil is an environmental campaign and slogan.

“The people behind it and those that support it are apolitical.

“They seek the ending of exploration for new sources of fossil fuels, because of the energy crisis.

“The FA have been highly critical of FIFA for not allowing the wearing of the OneLove armband and for the ‘unlimited’ sanctions that the FA and England team faced if they ignored that advice.

“This situation mirrors the situation we found ourselves in a few weeks ago except in this case the FA played the role of FIFA.

“In England where the FA has jurisdiction, it banned our intended act of solidarity and we also faced unlimited sanctions.

“At best it is an example of double standards, at worst it deserves to be called hypocrisy – to take this righteous and outspoken position against FIFA in Qatar, while acting like FIFA back at home.”

An FA spokesperson said: “The FA has clear kit and advertising regulations for all club matchday kits.

“Prior to the match, we informed Forest Green that using the logo they requested on their warm-up shirt would be in breach of these regulations, on the basis that it constitutes a political message.

“At no point did we suggest or refer to any sanctions in our communications with the club.”

The @fa were disingenuous in their response to media about the refusal to allow FGR to wear a Just Stop Oil t-shirt. pic.twitter.com/xOfEVRjI2n

— Dale Vince (@DaleVince) November 28, 2022

This is what was said in the picture uploaded by Dale Vince on Monday (above): In denying that to media they threatened FGR with sanctions the FA are being disingenuous. Or perhaps trying to shift the argument away from the real issue, which is that they appear to be operating with double standards.

Having loudly criticised FIFA in Qatar but operating in the same manner as FIFA in England.

The FA may have been responding to reporting in the Daily Mail, who misrepresented what I wrote in my letter to the FA. But that should not be the focus of their response. They should address the real issue – double standards.

My letter, which the FA has and is published online, is clear – I did not say we were threatened with sanctions. Though we were implicitly. The FA told us we would be in breach of rule A4, the sanctions for that breach are clear in the rulebook, the threat of sanctions was real, whether spoken or implied.

Grandstanding against FIFA in Qatar while operating in the same fashion in England. That’s how I see it.

I’ve copied the sanctions below – you can see that they include closing the ground, expulsion from the FA cup, expulsion from the EFL (sounds like expulsion from football to me) and whatever else the FA determines as well… Not that much else is left.

These sanctions are fairly described as unlimited, I imagine the FA were looking at something similar in Qatar and felt threatened. I understand that.

PENALTIES AND ORDERS

General

41 Save where expressly stated otherwise, a Regulatory Commission shall have the power to impose any one or more of the following penalties or orders on the Participant Charged:

41.1 a reprimand and/or warning as to future conduct;

41.2 a fine;

41.3 suspension from all or any specified football activity from a date that the Regulatory Commission shall order, permanently or for a stated period or number of Matches;

41.4 the closure of a ground permanently or for a stated period;

41.5 the playing of a Match or Matches without spectators being present, and/or at a specific ground;

41.6 any order which may be made under the rules and regulations of a Competition in which the Participant Charged participates or is associated, which shall be deemed to include the deduction of points and removal from a Competition at any stage of any playing season;

41.7 expulsion from a Competition;

41.8 expulsion from membership of The Association or an Affiliated Association;

41.9 such further or other penalty or order as it considers appropriate.

Twitter users reacted as Dale Vince accuses the English FA of ‘hypocrisy’ after the response from them…

@simonyoung68: Dale, the FA are the most sanctimonious, corrupt organisation…… allegedly 😉 They’ll never do anything in the common good, they only protect their own little gang

@zemarshfield: dale mate stop putting all your opinions on every players shirt they arent scapegoats lad

@Gypster1971: The key difference is your methods of highlighting your cause have a damaging affect on people just going about their daily lives. You can make whataboutery arguments as much as you like – sympathy for your cause (which is important) are tainted by your actions

@DenGlanzig: Striking to understand how wearing a tee shirt to warm up in can “have a damaging affect on people just going about their daily lives”

@sbready1: Just stop oil have killed people needing to go to hospital and stopped family members going to hospital to say goodbye to family members but yeah it’s exactly the same

@olivernjash: Is Dale really surprised to see @FA taking decisions which seem contradictory to good sense or good governance of the professional game?

@JamieLeeHill2: Utter hypocrisy from the FA.

@1948griff: Yeah that’s exactly the same thing. Jesus wept

@BrianNUFC: Ludicrous letter.

@Mlabus5: Well done yesterday. Message was simple, but strong. #JustStopOil

@TootingBull: Now, how can I make this all about me….. Stopped buying Gazprom gas these days? Presumably have a new source these days 😎 Forest Gazprom Rovers….. #hippycrit

@dodders75: The difference being, that you are funding JSO to carry out criminal activity.

@AGWhiteside2: Hopefully he has a good laugh at this then stores it straight in his paper shredder. If Just Stop Oil want respect, they could start being having it for others.

@MartinJohnson10: I don’t see anyone with rainbow armbands attaching themselves to goal posts or putting lives at risk on the M25 or damaging priceless works of art. Your mob are just a bunch of spoilt brats who think vandalism is fine

@Adamjmargo: No one cares about you and you’re pathetic little football club. What a pathetic letter, how you can compare the two issues it’s actually embarrassing and insulting. 🇮🇱🏳️‍🌈

@legetmufc: If you think there’s a similarity between the safety of LGBT people risking execution for simply being gay and promoting a bunch of knobs who go around blocking motorways and pouring milk onto supermarket floors then I really don’t know what to say.

@MarkCFC2021:
Hi Dale,
Piss off.
Thanks,
The FA

But the FA wanted England to wear one love armbands. That’s the issue here, double standards.

— Dale Vince (@DaleVince) November 29, 2022