Homosexuality is illegal in the Gulf state and punishment can include imprisonment. Under Sharia law, acts of homosexuality can also be punished by flogging and the death penalty.
But Mark Bullingham, the FA’s chief executive who has visited Qatar to better understand the issues, insists they “have been given those assurances that people from the LGBT+ communities will be allowed to go to Qatar and support the [England] team.”
In 2019, Forbes listed Qatar as the second-most dangerous place in the world for LGBT+ travellers.
Bullingham added: “We have asked the question as to whether all of our fans will be able to come, particularly those from LGBTQ community, and we received the unequivocal answer that absolutely everybody is welcome to come to Qatar.”
Bullingham believes travelling to Qatar has helped him better understand the progress the country has made, saying that the rights of migrant workers have improved as a result of Qatar winning the right to host the World Cup in 2010. The Guardian reported in February that 6,500 migrant workers in Qatar had died since the World Cup had been awarded in 2010.
“We are not perfect ourselves as a country and I think we have to establish that early on when we talk about any other country,” Bullingham said. “I am on the Uefa working group on human rights and therefore have been out to Qatar.
“We met with the migrant workers, we’ve met with some of the charities out there as well.
“And I think that’s helped us get a bit of a picture, which is we believe that the legislation that Qatar brought in over the last few years has been strong progress from a fairly low base, with installation of minimum wage and lots of other steps forwards in the legislation.
“What is very clear, though, is that the legislation isn’t being applied universally, and that has to be the next step, and that’s where we see the real progress will come through.”
‘As a gay woman I’d never want to go to Qatar’
By Magda Eriksson, Chelsea Women’s captain and i columnist
I’m a football romantic so the business of “sportswashing” – be it Qatar using football to promote their country or the Saudi takeover of Newcastle United – makes me uneasy to start with. Moreover, I look at it as a gay woman who would never choose to go on holiday to a country like Qatar where homosexuality is illegal.
Ultimately, I would argue that there are two ways to go – either you boycott it completely or you go there and make no secret of what you stand for. The closest thing I’ve experienced to this was when Sweden played a friendly earlier this year in Poland, a country where they have “LGBT-free” zones.
As a team, we discussed what to do about it and in the end, we decided not to make a protest but instead I did an interview with Expressen, one of Sweden’s two biggest newspapers, and spoke about it there. It was important to at least raise an issue that I consider very significant.
In the case of Qatar, therefore, perhaps the most important thing we footballers can do is talk about the situation there – for the sake of the workers who’ve had no voice. When teams like England (and hopefully Sweden) qualify for the World Cup, I would genuinely encourage them to speak up if they do want to say something as in that way at least something good might come of this.
Source: inews.co.uk, Sam Cunningham, November 22, 2021
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