At the World Cup group match between Portugal and Uruguay, a speedster with a rainbow flag and other political messages caused a stir. A few minutes after the start of the second half, a spectator ran across the pitch at the Lusail Stadium in Qatar with a colorful flag, but was quickly stopped by stewards. Referee Aliresa Faghani picked up the flag and took it off the field.
One could only speculate about the motives of the speedster. The person’s Superman shirt also read “Save Ukraine” on the front chest and “Respect for Iranian Women” on the back. The rainbow is the symbol for the LGBTQI* community.
LGBT is the English abbreviation for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender. The variants LGBTQ, LGBTQI or LGBTQIA+ are also often used. Each letter represents one’s gender identity or sexual orientation.
Controversial World Cup
The tournament in Qatar is the most controversial in the history of the World Cup, mainly because of the human rights situation in the Gulf Emirate. Among other things, homosexuality is a punishable offense.
The captains of seven European teams had intended to wear multicolored “One Love” armbands against discrimination during the tournament. After the threat of sanctions by the world football governing body (FIFA), however, the national associations refrained from doing so.
Several fans complained at the start of the World Cup that they had been asked to remove rainbow-colored clothing.
Fan escorted out of the stadium
A few days ago, stadium security escorted a fan out of the stadium at the Ahmad bin Ali stadium in al-Rayyan before the start of the football World Cup match between Wales and Iran because he had written support for the anti-government protesters in al-Rayyan on a shirt Iran had demanded. According to eyewitnesses, the man wore a shirt with the anti-government protest slogan “Women, Life, Freedom”.
It was unclear why the fan was actually led out of the stadium. The press officers for FIFA in the stadium initially did not answer a question, and a statement from the stadium manager was announced for later.
A spokesman for the organizing committee referred to the list of prohibited items and symbols in the stadiums, but did not specify which prohibited symbol the fan had displayed. The rules ban symbols with “political, offensive or discriminatory messages”.