A U.S. journalist claimed that on Monday, when attempting to enter a World Cup stadium in Qatar while donning a rainbow-colored jersey in solidarity of the LGBTQ community in a nation where same-sex relationships are prohibited, he was temporarily held.
Former Sports Illustrated reporter Grant Wahl, who now runs his own website, claimed that World Cup security forced him to take off his shirt and refused to let him enter the Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium in Al Rayyan for the United States’ opening match against Wales.
When he tweeted about the incident, he claimed that his phone had been taken away.
Wahl tweeted, “I’m OK, but that was an unnecessary hassle.”
Later, he claimed, a security officer came up to him, apologized, and let him inside the area. He added that a representative of FIFA, soccer’s global governing organization, later offered him an apology.
On Monday, seven European World Cup nations abandoned their plans for their captains to wear OneLove armbands after FIFA threatened to send any player sporting the multicolored armband, which was created to represent diversity and inclusion, home with a yellow card.
