American sports journalist says he was detained at the World Cup in Qatar because of the LGBT rainbow t-shirt

An American journalist said he was detained on Monday after trying to enter a World Cup stadium in Qatar, where same-sex relationships are banned, wearing a rainbow t-shirt in support of the LGBT community.

Grant Wahl, a former Sports Illustrated writer who now runs his own website, said World Cup security prevented him from attending the World Cup. USA vs Wales match at the Ahmad bin Ali Stadium in Al Rayyan and asked him to take off his shirt.

He said his phone was taken from him when he tweeted about the incident.

“I’m fine, but this was an unnecessary test,” Wahl wrote. “He was detained for almost half an hour.”

The journalist subsequently claimed that the head of security later approached him, apologized and let him into the stadium.

Wahl also said that he later received an apology from a spokesperson for FIFA, football’s international governing body.

Earlier Monday, seven European countries participating in the World Cup dropped plans to require their respective captains to wear OneLove armbands introduced to support diversity and inclusiveness after FIFA threatened to issue yellow cards to any player wearing a multicolored armband.

Qatar has come under scrutiny from many Western countries for its treatment of the LGBT community and migrant workers, although FIFA chief Gianni Infantino considered such criticism “hypocritical”, stating that “Europeans should apologize for the next 3,000 years before they start giving people moral lessons”.