Security confiscate rainbow hats from Welsh supporters at last nights game

[decapitated]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-63710435

Quote

An ex-Wales footballer has described being asked to remove her "rainbow wall" bucket hat as she entered a World Cup stadium in Qatar.

Laura McAllister, a gay woman and past Fifa Council candidate, said she was told to remove her hat before the start of Wales' opener against the USA.

The rainbow version of Welsh fan hats shows support for the LGBTQ+ community.

Fifa - world football's governing body, which is responsible for the tournament - has been asked to comment.

It comes after national team captains, including Wales' Gareth Bale, were told not to wear One Love armbands. Homosexuality is illegal in Qatar.

Ms McAllister, a Cardiff University professor and one of the FAW's tournament ambassadors, was stopped during security checks at the Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium perimeter on Monday evening.

Video footage taken of the incident appears to show officers telling her to remove the hat.

BBC Wales has been told officials asked her to remove the rainbow hat and that it was considered a restricted item, and would need to be handed in.

The incident comes despite previous assurances that fans would be allowed to wear them.

Ms McAllister wrote on Twitter: "So, despite fine words from FIFA World Cup before event, Cymru rainbow bucket hats confiscated at stadium, mine included.

"I had a conversation about this with stewards - we have video evidence," she wrote. "This World Cup 2022 just gets better but we will continue stand up for our values."

The bucket hat has become the must-have accessory for Wales fans over the past decade.

The yellow, green and red hats are worn in their thousands by the so-called 'Red Wall', with a rainbow version also produced.

Wales' Rainbow Wall wrote on Twitter: "Our rainbow bucket hat. We are so proud of them, but news on the ground tonight is our welsh female supporters wearing them in Qatar are having them taken off them, not the men, just women.

"Fifa are you serious !! LGBTQRights."

An American journalist, Grant Wahl, said he was also stopped for half an hour by security for wearing a rainbow-themed t-shirt.

He was later allowed to enter the stadium perimeter, he added.

"Finally a commander came through, said I could go through, and apologised," he told the BBC.

 

Edited November 22, 2022 by decapitated

[decapitated]

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/nov/21/us-journalist-grant-wahl-says-he-was-detained-in-qatar-for-rainbow-shirt

Quote

US soccer journalist Grant Wahl says he was detained by security staff after he wore a rainbow shirt to USA’s World Cup opener against Wales.

Wahl, who works for CBS Sports and writes a popular Substack column, wore the shirt as a show of solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community to the game at Qatar’s Ahmad bin Ali Stadium. Homosexuality is illegal in Qatar.

However, he said a security guard told him the shirt was not allowed. Wahl said his phone was “forcibly ripped” from his hands by a guard as he tweeted about the incident. He said he was then detained for 25 minutes and told to remove his shirt, which a member of security staff said was “political”. He was also asked if he was from the UK.

Wahl says he told a New York Times journalist who was passing by what had happened and he was detained too before being let go shortly afterwards.

“Then a security commander approached me,” Wahl wrote in his Substack column. “He said they were letting me through and apologized. We shook hands. One of the security guards told me they were just trying to protect me from fans inside who could harm me for wearing the shirt … A Fifa rep later apologized to me as well.

“But the entire episode left me wondering: 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 said he was subsequently allowed to wear the shirt in the stadium.

A Wales LGBTQ+ supporters group said some of its members were forbidden from wearing rainbow hats at the same game

Fifa has said everyone is welcome at this year’s World Cup but LGBTQ+ rights activists and campaigners had earlier on Monday criticized soccer’s world governing body after it threatened to impose sanctions on players who wear OneLove armbands at the tournament.

England, Wales and five other European nations have confirmed their players will not wear the armband, saying Fifa had made it clear their captains could be booked or forced to leave the pitch if they did so.

Stonewall, the LGBTQ+ charity, said on Twitter: “By threatening sporting sanctions & stopping players from wearing #OneLove armbands, Fifa are brushing criticism of human rights abuses under the carpet.

“LGBTQ+ people are criminalised in Qatar just for being themselves. No country which abuses the human rights of its people in this way should have been awarded with the honour of hosting a major sporting tournament in the first place.

“We appreciate all the @England and @Cymru players’ efforts to draw attention to the appalling human rights abuses of LGBTQ+ people in Qatar, and we urge them to continue to speak out in Qatar as best and safely as they can.”

 

[Wiggins Top Boys]

pretty sure we already knew this would happen

[Orzelek]

This is simply not news anymore, will happen every day.

 

Not that it justifies it, but it's getting boring already.

[decapitated]

Would you guys prefer it if I didn't post any new threads about this sort of stuff? If that's the case then let me know.  

[Wolf_pd]

It's more that it will end up being a big pile of FIFA and Qatari shenanigans. Do we have a thread for that? (didn't check). Could add it there, although I think it will end up a big thread.

It is almost like an advent calender, every day a new one.

[forameuss]

There's an analogy with the progression of Covid there.  I found a paper in the house from late-March or early-April 2020 and there was a front-page story about how someone had been airlifted from one of the offshore rigs in Scotland with a positive case.  One case.  Don't think it was even a death.  Massive news.

Fast forward a few months, and we're mentioning hundreds of deaths a day like it's nothing.  There's going to be more stories like this from the tournament.  Maybe even some worse.  But it ends up just becoming noise, even though it shouldn't be.  The time for anything to actually change has long disappeared.

[Weezer]

How do they know she wasn’t just showing support for the NHS? Or just likes pretty coloured clothing?

The LGBTQ don’t own the rainbow. Is Bungle banned from Qatar too?

[Ackter]

1 minute ago, Weezer said:

Is Bungle banned from Qatar too?

Probably because of his gay friend George.

[Weezer]

Oh yeah, George isn’t getting in. Rod and Freddy were pretty suspect too.