Women's World Cup: England skipper Millie Bright to don armbands backing inclusion and gender equality

England open their campaign in the ongoing FIFA Women's World Cup on Saturday (July 22), versus Haiti. Ahead of the English line-up's opener, captain Millie Bright has made it clear that her side will use the World Cup stage to support several social causes. Bright will donarmbands supportinginclusion, indigenous people and gender equality during the group stage.

It is to be noted that the as many as eight FIFA-sanctioned armbands ('Unite for Peace', 'Unite for Education for All', 'Unite for Zero Hunger', 'Unite for Ending Violence Against Women', 'Unite for Inclusion', 'Unite for Indigenous People' and 'Unite for Gender Equality') areavailable to players for the tournament, being heldin Australia and New Zealand.

The OneLove design -- which made heads turn andled to the governing body to threaten sanctions during the2022 FIFA Men's World Cup in Qatar -- is not among them.

Ahead of England's game versus Haiti, skipper Bright said, "As a group, we felt really strongly about all the causes, and we couldn’t separate one from the other."

"As a team, we know what we stand for, what we believe in and we also know the changes that we want to make. So regardless of an armband, we would like to think our actions and our morals represent everything that we believe in and stand for," she added.

Bright will sportthe 'Unite for Inclusion' armband in the game versus Haiti and switch to'Unite for Indigenous People' for the second match against Denmark. In the final group game, where England faceChina,the 29-year-oldwill wear the one stating 'Unite for Gender Equality'.

In addition,Bright made it clear that theteam will back several new causes if they proceed to the knockouts.

The Women's World Cup kicked off on Thursday (July 20) with co-hosts New Zealand and Australia off to a winning start. NZ defeated Norway, at Eden Park, Auckland, whereas Australia went past Ireland by 1-0 in Sydney.

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