“It’s difficult,” said Wubben-Moy, who travels with England to Spain for friendlies against Japan and Norway on Friday and next Tuesday. “As an England team we all have strong values and many of those are not reflected, as we see it, in Qatar.” Wubben-Moy has been a staunch champion of equality and instigated a letter from the Lionesses to Conservative leadership candidates calling for equal access to football in schools. She also has a clause in her contract committing her to work with Arsenal in the Community to create a project aimed at young women and girls. “It’s a difficult conversation and there’s a lot of dialogue around it,” he said. “I’ll be supporting the men’s team, but I won’t be watching. It’s hard to talk about it but at the end of the day, we’re one team here in England and we know they’ve got a chance to play in a World Cup and it’s hard to look past that really.” Responding to FIFA’s message to the teams competing in Qatar “not to allow football to get dragged into every ideological or political battle there is,” Wubben-Moy said: “Sport is a very powerful vehicle for change. It would be naive to underestimate it. I have seen many of the players have strong opinions and I salute them and wish them all the best in expressing that at this World Cup. “A lot of players may never play in a World Cup again so I can’t comment on their choice to go because a lot of people would make the same choice. But [if] they can use this opportunity to help change, I think that’s important.” Wubben-Moy’s Lionesses team-mate Alex Greenwood said: “Obviously we can’t choose where the World Cup is. We need to try to turn the negative into a positive and talk about things that we can maybe highlight and what we believe in as a country and that is for all women to have equal rights. That’s something we’re going to talk about openly and I’m sure men will do the same.” Wubben-Moy echoed Greenwood’s sentiments, while Beth Mead told BBC Radio 4 last week that Qatar’s ban on homosexuality was “the complete opposite of what I believe in and respect”. Start your evenings with the Guardian’s view of the world of football Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. “It’s not something I will support or promote,” said the England forward, who is in a relationship with Arsenal team-mate Vivian Mitema. “It’s disappointing in the sense that there’s a lack of respect on many levels, even though it’s a game of football.”
