Human rights at 2022 World Cup: Qatar to blacklist Portugal after World Cup, media

After the President of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, made statements on human rights in Qatar at a conference in Doha, the country’s authorities announced that they plan to blacklist Portugal after the World Cup. This was reported by the “Portugal Posts” publication.

Observers write that the statements were made on the sidelines of the match between Portugal and Ghana, and although it was quite restrained according to journalists, local authorities did not like it. The sanctions will come into effect immediately after the 2022 World Cup.

De Souza spoke about human rights in Qatar, especially in the context of access to education in the country for different social groups, including immigrants and people of different sexual orientations.

“Human rights are social rights, economic rights, political rights and individual rights. And this is very important. Education should be available to all – the poor, immigrants, people with different political views, even different sexual orientations … Qatar does not respect human rights … But let’s forget,” he said on November 24.

The newspaper stated that the Qatari authorities also took into account the previous statements of the country’s leaders, and then the Portuguese Ambassador was summoned to the Deputy Prime Minister of Qatar.

Portugal will be blacklisted by Qatar immediately after the end of the World Cup, which could have political and economic consequences and affect the movement of people between the two countries.

Important

It should be noted that the World Cup in Qatar managed to cause scandals in a short time due to the restrictions inherent in a Muslim country. Literally at the beginning of the World Cup, a scandal erupted with LGBT+ symbols after the Qatari authorities refused to accept the plane with the LGBT slogan on the fuselage of the German national team.

The players of the England national team, who decided to wear rainbow armbands with the words One Love in the match, added fuel to the fire. But the FIFA leadership categorically banned such attempts, threatening the national team with a fine. It was also learned that on November 25, football fans of the England national team are prohibited from wearing the costumes of medieval knights and crusaders. According to FIFA, such attire can be offensive as they may remind of the religious wars waged between Christians and Muslims in the Middle Ages.

Recall that the Iranian national football team players did not sing the national anthem before the match against England at the 2022 World Cup held in Qatar. The Independent’s reporter, Borzu Daragahi, said it was a gesture of protest “against the violence perpetrated by supporters of Khamenei” by Iranian football players.