FIFA Prince concerned that hijab ban overturn won't happen before key fixtures after medical objections

By Andrew Warshaw in Budapest

May 26 – FIFA’s Asian vice-president Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein of Jordan (pictured), the modernist who has led a tireless campaign to overturn the ban on Muslim women footballers wearing the hijab, says he is “shocked and disturbed” by suggestions there are still medical objections.

Prince Ali has been at the forefront of enabling women freedom of choice to wear hijabs during football and gained a significant breakthrough two months ago when the International Football Association Board (IFAB), the game’s lawmakers, unanimously agreed with him, pending health and safety checks on revolutionary Velcro-designed headscarves (example of type pictured below).

The assumption was that Muslim women would be cleared to wear the hijab in international football from July 5 when IFAB holds its next meeting in Zurich.

But on Thursday, Prince Ali and his followers received a potentially huge setback when Michel D’Hooghe, chairman of FIFA’s Medical Committee, told reporters he was still not satisfied the new designs were totally safe, suggesting they could cause neck lesions when pulled.

“I was quite shocked to hear Dr D’Hooghe’s reasons because we have covered all the issues,” Prince Ali told a media briefing at a downtown Budapest hotel following the FIFA congress.

“I’m usually not very emotional but this is very important.

“There are women serving in combat zones across the world and many of them are wearing the headscarves so I’m disturbed about this being used an argument.

“All we are asking is women being allowed to play football.

“I hope this issue will be treated with the same respect and dignity as other issues and that, at the very least, IFAB will allow proper evaluation and allow these players to play in the field and, if necessary, be monitored on the pitch.

“We know for certain there have been no reported cases of injury anywhere.

“If it’s such a problem, let them come up with a proper medical reason.”

Prince Ali, FIFA’s youngest and most progressive Executive Committee member, refused to comment on suggestions that there might be a politically-led conspiracy against him by FIFA’s more conservative figures.

“I don’t know what this is about,” he said.

“But if it was unanimous at IFAB and approved by some of the best doctors in the world, I see no reason why it should not be allowed or at the very least tested properly.”

D’Hooghe told reporters on Thursday (May 24) that there were concerns about the hijab causing injury when being pulled from the side.

But the Belgian apparently made no objections at a meeting in Zurich on April 20 attended by a range of Dutch and Canadian designers and specialists.

Six weeks earlier, Prince Ali’s presentation to IFAB members was received rapturously.

So why the sudden intervention by D’Hooghe and Medical Committee who, it is understood, have based their objections on minimal testing.

“That’s the question I want answered,” said Prince Ali in unusually assertive language.

“To keep young women off the field right now for no reason is absurd.”

D’Hooghe said he would be getting new designs in the coming days but it is understood no such move is afoot.

“The designers are equally shocked and asked us what he [D’Hooghe] was talking about,” said a source close to Prince Ali.

Prince Ali is now concerned that the next IFAB meeting might comprise different FIFA-appointed personnel and that the ban on the hijab may not be formally overturned in time for key international fixtures in the autumn.

But he is prepared to see the issue to its conclusion to get fair treatment for Muslim women footballers everywhere.

“I’m just concerned there is now no seriousness or desire for testing.

“Maybe the best thing is for Dr D’Hooghe and Jiri Dvorak [FIFA’s chief medical officer] to go and explain the reasons if there are serious medical concerns, just as I did with my presentation.

“I trust in IFAB and hope it will still be approved because what I heard was a complete shock to me.

“The issue will certainly not go away.”

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