Home and Away | A load of poppycock: Fifa insults us (again) by refusing our right to honour war dead

When these words “May their martyred souls be immortal and their noble spirits endure” were added to the Cenotaph in Hong Kong’s Statue Squarein the 1970s to commemorate those who lost their lives during the Japanese invasion, were they chiselled into the granite as a political statement or as an act of remembrance?

A similar question is boiling angrily away as the English, Welsh, Northern Irish and Scottish FAs prepare to defy Fifa and wear poppies on their shirts in World Cup qualifiers on Armistice Day (November 11) and on the UK’s annual Remembrance Sunday.

If they do (and surely they must) they will contravene Fifa regulations and as a result be deducted points.

Fifa is refusing to exempt poppies from world football’s Law 4, which forbids political, religious or commercial symbols on international shirts.

For many Britons, wearing a poppy is a crucial part of our heritage, as well as a way to pay respects to the many soldiers, who gave their lives and limbs, and their relatives.

The year 2016 is poignant, too, because a century ago the bloodiest war in history was raging. Indeed, 100 years ago this week, the first recruits from the Chinese Labour Corps set sail from the then named Weihaiwei in Shandong province for the European battle fronts to help defend against a tyrannical threat.