FIFA have urged competition organisers to use “common sense” when dealing with players who display messages of support to the George Floyd movement.
Floyd was killed in the United States by a police offer and his death has sparked mass protests.
Several Bundesliga players helped lend their support to the protests at the weekend with Jadon Sancho lifting his shirt to show a message of “Justice for George Floyd” after scoring a hat-trick.
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His Borussia Dortmund team-mate Achraf Hakimi did similarly despite FIFA regulations prohibiting players from displaying any “political, religious or personal slogans, statements or images” on their kit.
That rule came into playback in 2014 but in a statement issued on Tuesday, the football governing body said it “fully understands the depth of sentiment and concerns expressed by many footballers in light of the tragic circumstances of the George Floyd case”.
Schalke’s Weston McKennie showed a similar message to Sancho and Hakimi while Borussia Monchengladbach’s Marcus Thuram took a knee after scoring.
The German Football Association has said it was reviewing the incidents where the message was shown.
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