FIFA authorises wearing of veils, turbans during matches

Google – AFP, 1 March 2014

Picture taken on November 30, 2006 shows Jordan midfielder Abeer Al Nahar

 at a training session at the Al-Arabi Football Stadium in Doha (AFP/File,

Toshifumi Kitamura)

Zurich — Football's world governing body FIFA on Saturday officially authorised the wearing of head covers for religious purposes during matches.

"It was decided that female players can cover their heads to play," said FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke at a meeting of the International Football Association Board (IFAB), the sport's lawmakers, in Zurich.

That will allow female Muslim players who wear a veil in everyday life to cover their heads during matches, and Valcke added that male players will also be authorised to do so following a request from the Sikh community of Canada.

"It was decided that male players can play with head cover too," he said, although they will not be the same as those worn day-to-day.

"It will be a basic head cover and the colour should be the same as the team jersey."

The wearing of head covers had been banned until 2012, with FIFA saying that they posed too great a risk of injury to the head or neck.

However, the IFAB then allowed for them to be tested out over a two-year period following a request from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), a trial which proved to be successful.

Iranian women footballers run with the national flag at a stadium in Amman on

 June 3, 2011 moments after they were barred from playing an Olympic qualifier

against Jordan for wearing the traditional Islamic headscarf (AFP)

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