The safety of LGBTQ fans and players at the World Cup in Qatar is still not guaranteed, says the president of the Norwegian Football Federation, Lise Klaveness, repeating her warning at the end of March before the FIFA congress.
“When awarding the World Cup to a country where the LGBTQ lifestyle is banned, football must ensure that all fans and players will have access to the tournament. At the moment this is not the case”said the former Norwegian international in an interview with the German agency SID.
“They have started selling tickets but the bans are still in effect”
Lise Klaveness, President of the Norwegian Football Federation
“They have started selling tickets but the bans are still in placeshe continues. We must ensure that these laws are suspended during the Worlds (November 18-December 21), and that it is made public. »
Nothing to worry about according to Qatari leaders
Qatari World Cup organizers regularly assure that members of the LGBTQ community will be welcomed without discrimination and that homosexual couples will be able to share the same hotel room, despite laws criminalizing homosexuality in the country.
“Everyone will be welcome here, everyone will feel safe”assured the press at the end of November Nasser Al-Khater, executive director of the 2022 World Cup, believing that this edition was criticized in a way “unfair”.
Regarding migrant workers, we must “act quickly and concretely”
In the same interview, Lise Klaveness also discusses the situation of migrant workers employed in the construction of infrastructure linked to the event. “We must act quickly and concretely, because we have little time left until the World Cup”, she believes. The Norwegian football manager had already raised the issue of respect for human rights at the end of March at the FIFA Congress in Doha.
The boss of the Supreme Organizing Committee for the 2022 World Cup, Hassan Al-Thawadi, had expressed his ” disappointment “ after his speech, accusing him of having made his speech without discussing these issues beforehand with the Qatari authorities. He ended up meeting Lise Klaveness on the sidelines of the Congress, without the content of their exchanges filtering.
