Poppy Row: Scotland and England await FIFA punishment

Scotland's Grant Hanley, left, and England's Eric Dier wear a black armband with a poppy to mark Armistice Day during their World Cup qualifying match. Picture: Matt Dunham/AP

The Scottish and English and Scottish Football Associations defied FIFA on Armistice Day, after football’s governing body said the wearing of poppies falls under the commercial, personal, political or religious messages that it has banned.

If the armbands are mentioned in the official report of FIFA’s match commissioner, the case would then go to the world governing body’s disciplinary committee – with a fine or even a World Cup points deduction possible.

A FIFA statement read: “As is the case with every qualifying game, the official match reports are submitted for post-match evaluation to the area responsible. Therefore, FIFA has no further comment at this stage.

“As previously comm-unicated, the Independent Disciplinary Committee is the proper body to decide which of a member association’s activities are compliant, and what measures are to be taken in case of any breaches deemed to have occurred at a specific game.”

Meanwhile, Gareth Southgate has said he has loved every moment of his time in charge of England as he waits to discover if he will be appointed as permanent boss.

“That’s not my decision,” Southgate said.

“What I’m really pleased is that I was given the task of picking the job up in a very difficult situation for everybody and I feel like we’ve prepared the team really well. I’ve enjoyed that. The rest is out of my hands. I’ve loved it. I’ve really enjoyed the role.”

His final match as caretaker is against Spain in a friendly at Wembley on Tuesday.