European team captains will not wear anti-discrimination armbands in World Cup games in Qatar after threats from FIFA to show yellow cards to the players.

The decision comes after FIFA called on the seven European soccer federations to back down from allowing their captains to wear "One Love" armbands — a heart-shaped, multi-coloured logo aimed at exposing the host country's record on human rights.

"As national federations we can't put our players in a position where they could face sporting sanctions, including bookings," the seven soccer federations said Monday in a joint statement.

The Dutch federation said its number one priority was to win games.

"You don't want the captain to start the match with a yellow card," the federation said in a statement.

Urgent meeting 

During an earlier meeting, FIFA failed to persuade the Europeans with a counterproposal — announced on Saturday, local time, and backed by United Nations agencies — of armbands with socially aware, though generic, slogans.

The urgency of the meeting at a luxury hotel in Doha was because England, the Netherlands and Wales all play on Monday in their respective World Cup opening games.

"I think we've made it clear that we want to wear it," England captain Harry Kane said on Sunday evening in Doha, ahead of playing Iran.

Wales coach Robert Page said it would be "no different for us" at the late game on Monday against the United States.

The stand-off set up the prospect of viewers worldwide seeing — in back-to-back-to-back games — a symbol disapproved by the host country and in defiance of FIFA on the arms of Kane, Wales captain Gareth Bale and Netherlands captain Virgil van Dijk.

"We will stay with the European position," German soccer federation president Bernd Neuendorf said a day after team captain Manuel Neuer had promised to wear the "One Love" armband against Japan on Wednesday.

Other officials declined to comment when leaving the meeting, but some noted the heated tone of exchanges.

FIFA also declined to comment but, on Saturday, said it was "committed to using the power of football to effect positive change around the world".

The armband dispute flared two months ago and was still not resolved on the opening day of the tournament, despite being a clear breach of FIFA regulations.

"For FIFA final competitions, the captain of each team must wear the captain's armband provided by FIFA," the soccer body's equipment regulations state.

A similar rule had been written into tournament rules for this year's World Cup.

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'One Love' vs FIFA's in-house alternative

FIFA would typically open disciplinary cases if teams breached the rule, but its scope for punishment is likely limited to imposing fines of about 10,000 Swiss francs ($15,714.20) on some of its wealthiest member federations.

The "One Love" campaign promotes diversity and inclusion in soccer and was started in the Netherlands.