with more likely to follow if rulemakers fail to drop the ban at a meeting next month, Prince Ali Bin Al-Hussein of Jordan told the Reuters news agency last week.
Last year, the Iranian women’s soccer team reached the second round of the 2012 Olympic qualifying round undefeated and then was booted out of that second round because FIFA did not approve of their headscarves.
“It is very important that everybody has the chance to play the sport that they love and obviously the laws of the game have to be amended to allow that,” Prince Ali, a FIFA vice-president, told Reuters in an interview in Singapore.
“I think that football, being the most popular sport in the world, should be accessible to all, and we should take the lead on this issue. Therefore, that is what we are trying to pursue and hopefully we will get a pass from IFAB.”
Founded in 1886, IFAB, or the International Football Association Board, is soccer’s ultimate law-making body comprising four members from the sport’s world governing body, FIFA, and four from the British associations that first formed soccer.
They will hold a meeting in England March 3 where Prince Ali will present the case for allowing players to use a Dutch-designed Velcro headscarf that comes apart if pulled and, he hopes, will remove the safety concerns that FIFA said led to the headscarf ban.
“As far as I’m concerned, I want to make sure and guarantee what it is—that football is for everyone,” said the prince, who at 36 is the youngest member of FIFA’s executive committee.
A three-fourths majority is required for the prince’s proposal to pass IFAB, which banned the headscarf in 2007 after 11-year-old Asmahan Mansour was stopped from playing a match by the Quebec Soccer Federation because she refused to remove her headscarf. She appealed, and IFAB supported the referee, making the ban apply worldwide.
Prince Ali said, “I don’t like the politics. We are going straight to the point, which is to allow all of our players to participate on all levels.”
In 2010, FIFA adjusted the rules to allow a cap that covers the player’s head to the hairline with an attached snood that wrapped around the hair but did not extend below the ears to cover the neck. That was ruled to avoid the strangulation risk.
Asked if he was concerned that Muslim women would turn away from the sport if IFAB fails to permit a full headscarf, Prince Ali said it may already be too late for some.
“Well I think already we have seen that, and I think that is very unfortunate. I think we need to give the right to [play] to everyone across the world and we have to respect each other’s cultures.”
FIFA’s reluctance to allow the full headscarf on concerns over safety appear overly strict, Prince Ali said. He suggested long hair was more likely to cause injury on the field, and said he had not uncovered any hejab-related injuries in women’s soccer matches.