Netherlands coach Louis van Gaal has confirmed his group is not going to mirror Germany’s mouth-covering protest earlier than their second World Cup group sport towards Ecuador on Friday. Germany carried out the gesture throughout their group picture previous to Wednesday’s shock 2-1 defeat towards Japan. The German protest got here after they had been pressured to desert plans for skipper Manuel Neuer to put on a rainbow-themed “OneLove” armband following threats of on-field disciplinary motion by FIFA.

Captains of a number of European nations had initially hoped to put on the rainbow armbands, which had been seen as a symbolic protest towards legal guidelines in World Cup host nation Qatar, the place homosexuality is illegitimate. The Dutch camp has mentioned they won’t talk about any points apart from soccer since they invited a bunch of migrant employees to a coaching session at their base in Doha final week.

And Van Gaal doubled down on that call forward of a Group A conflict in Doha between two groups who each received their opening matches on the event. “We are here to become world champions,” Van Gaal mentioned at his pre-match press convention.

Netherlands full-back Denzel Dumfries added: “Last Thursday we welcomed the migrant workers. It was a wonderful evening for them and us.

“We have made statements however we got here to Qatar to play, and that is what we’re specializing in. We have mentioned what we have to say however any more we have to consider taking part in soccer.”

Van Gaal had said on the eve of the tournament that he had “no drawback” with supporters in the Netherlands who chose to boycott the World Cup due to their views on human rights issues in Qatar.

However, he also said he hoped his players would perform well enough to persuade fans to tune into their games. “In the Netherlands for a very long time it has been about human rights and maybe rightly so, but additionally perhaps not rightly so,” Van Gaal added.

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