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Soccer writer briefly detained for wearing pro-LGBTQ shirt to World Cup match

FILE - in this Sept. 25, 2015 file photo, the International Federation of Association Football, FIFA, logo is fixed on a wall of its headquarters during a meeting of the FIFA Executive Committee in Zurich, Switzerland. Reynaldo Vasquez, the former president of the El Salvador Soccer Federation declared himself guilty on Monday, August 23, 2021, before a judge in New York, of money laundering and electronic fraud charges in a corruption scandal that has shaken FIFA since 2015. (AP Photo/Michael Probst, File)
by: WRTV Staff
Posted: / Updated:

U.S. soccer journalist Grant Wahl was briefly detained while trying to enter a World Cup Match on Monday.

Wahl said Qatar authorities demanded he take off a rainbow t-shirt he wore in support of LGBTQ rights. Homosexuality is illegal in Qatar and can result in prison sentences.

“I showed up at the stadium last night, and I was pushed aside by security guards at the media entrance, and I was told explicitly, ‘You need to take off your shirt,’” Wahl told CNN. “Only after about 30 minutes did a commander come down and let me through and apologized, and so did FIFA.”

FIFA also ordered players not to wear “one love” armbands during matches. Players were told wearing the bands would result in a yellow card.

The incidents have prompted scrutiny over Qatar’s human rights record as the World Cup kicks off.

“What’s it like for ordinary Qataris who might wear a rainbow shirt when the world isn’t watching here? What’s that like” Wahl wrote.

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