Everyone is welcome in Qatar… is that so?

The first World cup held in the Middle East is certainly a historic event. But at the same time, it is a pit of controversy, which includes the death of immigrant workers, working conditions in preparation for the competition and the rights LGBTQIA + and women.

Entities denounce deaths and labor abuses in World Cup construction sites in Qatar

The Qatar World Cup started with a lot of excitement, but also concern. Several scandals have emerged over the last few months, including allegations of deaths due to accidents and physical exhaustion during construction for the World Cup. Although there are no official numbers, several NGOs denounced the situation of work similar to slavery and journalistic outlets carried out parallel surveys on the deaths.

No Catar, homosexuality is illegal and punishable by prison time. One Human Rights Watch report (*), published last month, documented recent cases in which the country's security forces arbitrarily arrested LGBTQIA+ people and subjected them to “ill-treatment in detention”.

The host country of the 2022 World Cup guaranteed that all fans will be welcome without discrimination, however, since the start of the competition, last Sunday (20), demonstrations of support, which aim to promote diversity, inclusion and social rights of the LGBTQIA+ community, have been banned.

FIFA threatens with penalty

FIFA threatened to penalize players who use the rainbow-colored emblem during matches, which forced European teams to reverse their decision to use it.

Team captains, including Harry Kane (England) and Gareth Bale (Wales), had planned to wear the rainbow-colored armband with the slogan 'One Love' during matches, but their intention was overturned by the threats from FIFA to give yellow cards to players.

Irresigned, the German Football Federation (DFB) reported, this Tuesday (22), that considers appealing against FIFA ban. According to the German newspaper Bild, the DFB may file an appeal in Court of Arbitration for Sport (TAS), headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland.

O british newspaper The Guardian (*) also reported incidents involving Football Association of Wales staff and Welsh fans, who had colorful hats confiscated before the game against the United States. The action was being investigated by the authorities.

out of the field

If the practice was prohibited inside the field, demonstrations were seen outside.

There were even Brazilians reporting that they were approached by local authorities, who confused the flag of the state of Pernambuco with that of the LGBTQIA+ community. 😓

• Brazilian says that Qatari authorities took Pernambuco's flag after confusing it with support for LGBTQIA+; see video (G1)

Well, not everyone is welcome in Qatar! 🤔

(with AFP)

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(🇬🇧): content in English

(*): content in other languages ​​is translated by Google Tradutor