Keep politics off the pitch

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 15/06/2013 (4749 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

“I think the Quebec federation has the right to establish its own regulations. It is not subject (to the Canadian federation), it is autonomous, not subject to the Canadian federation and in this regard I support it in its orientations.”

— Quebec Premier Pauline Marois

Sometime Saturday morning, the Quebec Soccer Federation is scheduled to hold a press conference to address the fact that the world’s soccer body gave the all-clear on Friday to religious male head coverings on Canadian soccer fields.

But no matter what final decision the board members actually make — to thumb their nose at FIFA or fall in line with the official guideline — the fallout from the QSF’s inexplicable decision to ban Sikh turbans and the kids who wear them has done significant damage to Quebec’s international image.

Earlier this month, the QSF banned the Sikh headwear from its competitions, rather dubiously citing safety concerns for the basis of its decision. This in spite of the fact that there have been no known or proven dangers in relation to the wearing of turbans on a soccer pitch.

To add insult to injury, QSF director Brigitte Frot further suggested that players who were forced off the pitch as a result of the ban could play in their own backyards.

General consensus in this country was that the ruling was simply ridiculous at best, and at worst, outright prejudiced, albeit under the guise of uber-secularism. The controversy came to a head earlier this week after the Canadian Soccer Association suspended the Quebec federation, saying that Quebec leagues would not be allowed to compete in any national tournaments.

In the wake of that decision, more than 25 children’s soccer teams from eastern Ontario were barred from playing in Quebec tournaments this weekend in protest of the ban.

As The Canadian Press reported this week, Marois and her ministers decided to use the situation as a lightning rod for anti-Canadian, Quebec sovereignty support. One national newspaper columnist in Montreal even tried to use the dispute to show that Quebec needs to be independent from the rest of Canada.

But the fact remains that the QSF operates under the rules and regulations outlined by the national body, which in turn is governed by FIFA. The QSF’s rule No. 5 states that the Quebec body is “affiliated to, and under the jurisdiction of, the Canadian Soccer Association,” and is accordingly subject to the same rules that govern all soccer associations in the country.

The ban was officially made a rogue decision on Friday when FIFA released a statement saying the International Football Association Board had agreed to “allow male players in Canada to wear head covers.”

Simply put, the QSF has no legal or medical leg to stand on. And yet, though the QSF welcomed FIFA’s clarification, it refused to immediately overturn its own ruling yesterday. In our opinion, that’s just unacceptable.

Not everyone in Quebec has agreed with the ban, or the wedge politics being played by the PQ and its opportunistic leader. At least one Quebec team decided to protest the turban ban by symbolically wearing borrowed turbans during a game. Unfortunately, that appears to be one of only a few bright spots out of this whole mess.

Marois’ blatant pandering to her separatist supporters has only served to expose Quebec to international ridicule, and shown her government to be blatantly bigoted. While that may not be all that surprising — considering the PQ’s history of governance in Quebec — it certainly is disappointing from a purely Canadian point of view.

Turning the controversy into a political problem on the backs of young kids who just want to play a sport has to be one of the lowest points in Quebec’s ongoing sovereignty question.

René Lévesque would be spinning in his grave.