England’s players are wearing black armbands today for their Women’s World Cup Group D game against Denmark.
The armbands are in memory of former England international Trevor Francis – renowned for being the first £1m player in British football – who died earlier this week at the age of 69 after having a heart attack in his Marbella apartment.
Captain Millie Bright was also wearing a Unite for Indigenous People armband – one of the eight armband options offered by Fifa for the tournament.
England’s captain will wear all eight over the course of the competition, should they make it all the way to the final.
“We felt really strongly about all the causes and we couldn’t separate one from the other,” said Bright ahead of the tournament.
“We feel that they are all important and deserve recognition and our support. We have only just come to a decision recently as we wanted to take time to process it all and to make sure we spoke collectively.”
The Unite for Inclusion armband was worn against Haiti. For the final group game against China, the Unite for Gender Equality armband will be used. Should England progress, the captain will wear the Unite for Peace, Unite for Education For All, Unite for Zero Hunger, Unite for Ending Violence Against Women and the Football is Joy Peace, Hope, Love and Passion armbands, in that order.
Who was Trevor Francis?
Francis started his playing career at Birmingham City, where he scored 133 goals in 330 appearances, earning him his record-breaking move to Nottingham Forest in 1979.
At Forest he won the European Cup in back-to-back seasons under Brian Clough, scoring the winner in the first of those successes, a 1-0 victory over Malmo in 1979.
Francis went on to represent Manchester City, Sampdoria, Atalanta, Rangers, QPR and Sheffield Wednesday, and spent time on loan in the United States with Detroit Express, and in Australia with Wollongong City.
He also played 52 times for England between 1977 and 1986, scoring 12 goals. He was selected in Ron Greenwood’s squad for the 1982 World Cup, netting in matches against the then Czechoslovakia and Kuwait.
Francis later moved into management, and has spells with QPR, Sheffield Wednesday, Birmingham and Crystal Palace.
Under his stewardship, Wednesday reached both the FA and League Cup finals in 1993, but they were defeated on both occasions by Arsenal.
He suffered the same fate in 2001 when Birmingham were beaten on penalties by Liverpool in the League Cup final.
A statement from his family after his death read: “Trevor Francis has died at the age of 69. He had a heart attack at his apartment in Spain this morning. On behalf of the family, this has come as a huge shock to everybody. We are all very upset. He was a legendary footballer but he was also an extremely nice person.”
How can I watch England vs Denmark?
England vs Denmark kicks off at 9.30am BST at Sydney’s Allianz Stadium. The game is being shown live on BBC One, BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website.
They will hope to put on a more commanding display than their 1-0 victory over Haiti in the opener.
Sarina Wiegman’s side lacked the cutting edge against the Haitians despite dominating possession and having 11 efforts on target.
Barcelona defender, Lucy Bronze, said results were more important than the number of goals scored. “You could go to the World Cup and win it by winning 1-0 all the time or drawing and winning on penalties,” she said.
England are missing several key players to injuries, including Arsenal forward Beth Mead who scored six goals in six games to win the Golden Boot at the 2022 Euros.
“Performances mean a lot to us, but results are important too,” Bronze said. “It’s not always about scoring seven goals. If you have enough to win the game, that’s important.
“The performances are there in games, from individuals and collectively, it’s just being more ruthless, more clinical in front of goal and I don’t think people would talk as much about performances and results then.”
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