‘Ali Riley slayed her nails’: NZ Captain praised for sneaky protest against controversial FIFA rule
World Cup fans have labelled NZ captain Ali Riley a “legend” after she sneakily defied one of FIFA’s most controversial rules.
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The FIFA Women’s World Cup (WWC) may have strict protocols regarding how players can show their support for the LGBTQI+ community and other causes, but one star defender has found a sneaky way around them.
New Zealand captain Ali Riley was captured somewhat defying the controversial decision by the world’s soccer governing body to not wear the banned OneLove armband in Thursday’s world cup opener against Norway.
FIFA prohibited the WWC teams from displaying the rainbow-coloured armbands after the same band was boycotted in the men’s World Cup in Qatar last year, due to Qatar, England, Wales and five other European nations ruling against it.
Instead, FIFA revealed eight authorised armbands last month which captains of the 32 WWC teams could choose to wear in Australia and New Zealand during the tournament which will run until August 20.
The themes of these bands were decided following consultation with all participating teams, with each band a different colour containing some words about each cause.
The messages across the eight bands include: “Unite for Inclusion”, “Unite for Indigenous Peoples”, “Unite for Gender Equality”, “Unite for Peace”, “Unite for Education for All”, “Unite for Zero Hunger”, “Unite for Ending Violence Against Women” and “Football is Joy, Peace, Love, Hope and Passion”.
The “Unite for Inclusion” band includes the colours of the Pan-African flag and pansexual flag in its heart-shaped emblem, however at no point in the eight bands are the Pride colours reflected.
Riley chose to wear the “Unite for Inclusion” band on Thursday night, where her team won 1 – 0 against Norway, in what was New Zealand’s first-ever World Cup victory made extra special as they secured the win on home soil at Auckland’s Eden Park.
But in a subtle snub of the rules, the American-born New Zealand pro footballer painted her nails in the colours of the Progress Pride Flag, sending her fans into a frenzy.
“Absolutely loving the pride and trans colours on Ali Riley’s nails very nice touch and a big F U to FIFA”, one person tweeted.
FIFA WHAT YOU SAY? ALI RILEY SLAYED HER NAILS pic.twitter.com/Owd8dKOEXd
— day's world cup (@swandusik) July 21, 2023
“Ali Riley deliberately getting the rainbow/trans flag nails in the shot to p*ss off FIFA, legendary behaviour,” another comment read.
A third person said: “Ali Riley wearing rainbow nails I love her to death, thank you.”
ali riley with the pride and trans flag nails my @weareangelcity queen 🫡 pic.twitter.com/0WPpEOYRqw
— moe is watching wwc âš½ï¸ (@jynmystardust) July 20, 2023
Riley’s colourful fingernails were captured in full display, particularly in her post-match interview where she fought back tears as she applauded her team’s achievement.
“I know we came into this as underdogs. I know there was a lot of doubt, a lot of articles being written saying how many times we haven’t won a game, but we believed in ourselves the whole time,” she said.
“I’m just so proud of the team’s performance. The result is very important and that’s what people remember.
“But I think for the people who showed up tonight, the 40-plus thousand, to see the way we performed and fought – the resilience of this team, how gritty the effort was, the sprinting – everything like that is the kind of performance that we wanted to show.”
As for the captains of the other women’s teams playing on Thursday night, Norway’s Maren Mjelde wore a black armband, and Ireland’s Katie McCabe wore the “Unite for Inclusion” armband.
Meanwhile, Australia’s vice-captain Steph Catley – who stood in for Captain Sam Kerr who missed Thursday’s game due to a calf injury – wore the “Unite for Indigenous Peoples” band.
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Originally published as ‘Ali Riley slayed her nails’: NZ Captain praised for sneaky protest against controversial FIFA rule
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