Toronto, Canada - The Quebec Soccer Federation will allow Muslim women to wear head scarves on the pitch if the Canadian Soccer Association clarifies its current rules, a federation spokesman said on Tuesday.
On Sunday, a young Muslim girl was sent off the field by a referee during a soccer tournament in Laval, Quebec, because she was wearing the hijab.
The decision of the referee, who is Muslim, was based on a memo from the Canadian Soccer Association which prohibits jewelry or headgear of any kind on the field, said Michel Dugas, spokesman for the Quebec federation.
"At almost every game, referees have to ask players to remove necklaces, piercings, baseball caps or headbands, that's the rule," Dugas said.
"This has nothing to do with religion," he said. "We enforced a rule that comes from the Canadian association. If they say they allow the head scarf, then we will respect the decision."
The memo, based on rules by the world governing body for soccer, FIFA, doesn't specifically prohibit the Muslim head scarf from the soccer pitch, and allows "non-basic equipment" as long as it isn't dangerous.
"The Canadian association has to clarify the question so that we are all on the same page," Dugas said.
The young girl's team forfeited the game in protest after she was sent off.
A spokesman for FIFA told Reuters in an email on Tuesday that the question will be on the agenda of an annual International Football Association Board meeting on March 3 in Manchester, UK. He didn't provide FIFA's current position on the issue.
The Canadian Soccer Association couldn't be reached for comment.
Quebec Premier Jean Charest, in the midst of an election campaign ahead of a March 26 vote, told reporters on Monday the referee had applied the rules of the province's soccer federation and that the decision was appropriate.
The mainly-French speaking province of Quebec has been embroiled recently in a heated debate on accommodating religious minorities. About one-tenth of Quebec's population of 7.5 million were born outside of Canada, a 2001 census showed.
Last month, the local council of a small Quebec town issued extraordinary rules saying immigrants who wished to live in the town mustn't stone women to death in public, burn them alive or throw acid on them.
In January, the Journal de Montreal newspaper published a poll of Quebec residents, in which 59 percent admitted to some kind of racist feelings.