Who is the FIFA boss behind poppy ban? Samoura scoffs UK 'not only country' to suffer war

      

Defending the ban on poppies, the Fifa Secretary General said: “Britain is not the only country that has been suffering from the result of war.”

Fifa has ruled that English and Scottish football players cannot wear black armbands bearing powerful poppy symbols during a match on Armistice Day. 

The ex-UN diplomat, who was born in Senegal in West Africa, said that they cannot allow the armbands because other countries have also be devastated by war. 

She said: “Syria is an example. My own continent has been torn by war for years. The only question is ‘why are we doing exceptions for just one country and not the rest of the world.”

The Football Association (FA) has said that football players will defy the ban by wearing the poppy armbands at the World Cup match.
FA chief executive Martin Glenn said that players would wear the armbands “as a point of principle” and would accept “any kind of sanction” that might follow.
Asked about if the team will be punished, Ms Samoura said: “It is not really my ambition to punish anybody.
“They just have to recognise themselves that they are part of the rules of the game and they should be ready to face any kind of sanctions or measures.”