England’s Football Association is unlikely to light up the Wembley Stadium arch in support of social and political causes in the future, Reuters reported on Thursday.
A new Football Association policy restricts the lighting of the arch at Wembley to football and entertainment events.
The move follows last month’s decision by the FA not to light the arch in blue and white in solidarity with Israel following the attacks by Palestinian militant group Hamas on Oct. 7. The British government rebuked the FA for the decision.
The decision follows criticism when the arch was not lit in the colours of the Israel flag after attacks by Hamas in which 1,200 people were killed.
Israel responded to the attacks with a military campaign, during which Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry says more than 14,000 people have been killed.
Wembley held a period of silence to honour the “innocent victims” of the conflict.
That preceded England’s friendly against Australia on October 13.
After the attacks by Hamas, during which 240 people were also taken hostage, there were calls to light the arch.
The UK government described the decision not to do so as “disappointing,” leading to Rabbi Alex Goldberg’s resignation from an FA faith in football group.
FA senior officials were known to be wary of the perception they might be taking sides on the issue and insisted they acted on “expert advice”.
But they later accepted that the episode had caused harm to the Jewish community, describing it as “one of the hardest decisions” they had ever had to make.
Now, as first reported by the Telegraph, the FA will restrict the lighting of the arch to far fewer occasions, in recognition of the fact that it is a football and entertainment venue rather than a political one.
The FA will still support a number of diversity and equality causes and campaigns, but it will not illuminate the arch for them. It will be lit when Wembley is hosting matches or concerts, for instance, but not when there are natural disasters or tragedies, as in the past.
The 133-metre-high steel structure was lit up in the colours of Ukraine’s flag last year after the invasion of the country by Russia, which Moscow calls a’special military operation’, and that of France and Turkey after attacks in Paris and Istanbul.
But it is understood that it felt it had little choice but to change its approach.
FA chief executive Mark Bullingham said last month that the controversy “made us question whether we should light the arch and when, and we’ll be reviewing that”.
