Then there would be arguments that a certain symbol or action is political. Then any hint of something that might, conceivably be a stance or salute. No patterns, pictures or logos of any kind, unless it's of our sponsors.

Like FIFA ludicrously deciding that a poppy on a Remembrance Sunday international is political. They deserved every bit of anti-FIFA vitriol the popular press and internet managed to come up with.

> Then there would be arguments that a certain symbol or action is political.

No because they would not allow anything.

> Like FIFA ludicrously deciding that a poppy on a Remembrance Sunday international is political

If you start allowing this sort of display to commemorate a war then you open the door to plenty of highly political displays because wars are obviously highly political and sensitive issues.

Even in the UK wearing a poppy or not is political.

Hardly, it's a symbol of remembrance of dead, not of a war. It's a hell of a stretch to call the use of a white poppy political.

Most remembrance ceremonies have veterans of both sides attending, and are used for reconcilliation - unlike e.g. WW2 anniversaries such as the now comically overblown D Day fun days.

War dead.

If they start to allow one country to commemorate their war dead then they have to allow other countries to do the same, and as said these can be very political and sensitive issues. And then if they allow that why not another commemoration? Thus it is sensible not to allow anything.

The poppy doesn't even commemorate people who died in the war as a whole. It's specifically about the soldiers who were fighting the war and killing for it, and that's why it's politically controversial - the whole thing has jingoistic pro-war, pro-military overtones and they seem to have become more dominant over the years, especially after we helped invade Afghasnistan and Iraq and the British Legion decided to to make it a symbol of support for our soldiers there. Perhaps the best symbol of what it has become was the time the British Legion decided that a photo of little kids in "future soldier" shirts waving huge inflatable poppies was a good representation of the values the campaign represented...

Pretty much the whole of Europe marks remembrance day. It is about reconciliation and as far as it can be made so, is apolitical. Politicians of all sides and nationalities, including the "other" side have and do attend different country events. Perhaps less so with this generation of politicians who will make a cup of tea political if they can, but that is not the act of remembrance.

Not to mark _a_ war, but all war. That point is important.

I don't understand what's the argument about here.

Commemorating war dead is a sensitive issue. FIFA has to take all situations across the world into account. It is sensible for them not to allow any display and to keep to it without exception even if the British think that they are special. No big deal, just keep football purely about sport.

> the British think that they are special

lol. You are aware that just about the entire developed world, and a fair proportion of the rest mark the same day, right? It's called Veteran's Day in the US, also on November 11th.

Not marking it would be the political statement.

Yes the world, at least the world that matters, is made of the western countries that fought WWI.

The poppy incident is an illustration of this arrogance and ignorance of the real world.

It looks like you've been using HN primarily for political and ideological battle again. We ban accounts that do that because it's not in keeping with the intellectual curiosity HN is supposed to be for. Would you please take that spirit more to heart and fix this?

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html