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Major questions have been raised about the appointment of a former Wales football captain to the sport’s European governing committee, when she visited a country where homosexuality is illegal, but is herself gay, and appeared on television interviewing a man who was later charged with producing indecent images of children.
One Welsh football fan said: “This is incredible. It’s pure hypocrisy. Is there nobody else?!”. Another declared: “The judgement here is questionable. They appoint somebody to help run European football, but she is gay and went to a country where it is against the law to be gay”.
Laura McAllister was appointed unopposed to UEFA’s executive committee, and had been backed by the Football Association of Wales (FAW), but her background is controversial.
She had interviewed contentious ex-lobbyist Daran Hill about electoral reform on Senedd tv, but last month he appeared at Cardiff Magistrates’ Court charged with two counts of distributing indecent images of children and three counts of making them.
Apart from appearing on television with Mr Hill five years ago, Professor McAllister also went to Qatar to cheer on the Welsh football team there, but to critics this seemed strange.
One outraged reader of a piece about her on the nationalist website Nation.Cymru, wrote underneath it: “It seems to me practically every TV programme produced by BBC Wales that requires an opinion on Wales (Welsh elections, Welsh Government policy, Welsh football) Laura McAllister is there. And now she’s off to Qatar to represent us. is there anything she can’t do?”
Her sexuality is treated as a crime in Qatar, punishable by years in jail, and not acknowledging the absurdity of this law, when it is part of her identity, critics believe could have made it easier for officials there to ignore any criticism that was made. Awful remarks from Khalid Salman, (like Professor McAllister, a retired football international), have underscored the terrible facts that gay sex carries a punishment of up to three years in prison, as well as incurring the possibility of the death penalty for Muslims under sharia law.
He used an Arabic term for being homosexual meaning that it was a “damage in the mind”, speaking on the German public broadcaster ZDF. Mr Salman also appallingly said that gay people were bringing in to Qatar something that was “not good”, and he was worried children in his country might see gay men and women. He was then swiftly cut off by a media adviser.
But Professor McAllister was not deterred, and went to Qatar anyway, where she made headlines after being told to remove her rainbow bucket hat by a stadium steward.
The activist gay charity Stonewall campaigned strongly against the medieval law in Qatar, and featured on its website a news piece asking: “Why does it matter that the World Cup is in Qatar?”.
It also organised a petition to fill a ‘virtual’ stadium, with the headline: “This World Cup season, let’s fill a virtual stadium with pride for LGBTQ+ people in Qatar”. Professor McAllister, was herself a board member of Stonewall, so presumably will have known well the charity’s masthead during the World Cup, which proclaimed: “Stand with LGBTQ+ people in Qatar”.
To her detractors it appeared a bizarre way to “Stand with LGBTQ+ people in Qatar”, by actually going to the country in question. However Professor McAllister seemed undeterred, because she has declared: “The World Cup offers an unprecedented opportunity for us to raise the profile of Cymru whilst also staying firm to and promoting our values of diversity, inclusivity and respect for human rights”.
Two excellent recent books explored the horrors of life inside Qatar. One was called ‘Hidden Stories From One of the Richest Nations on Earth’ by John McManus, another was ‘Qatar and the 2022 FIFA World Cup : ‘Politics, Controversy, Change’ by Paul Michael Brannagan and Danyel Reiche.
A review of them by the London Review of Books (LRB), put centre stage one of the key issues in the country, when it published: “Homosexuality is illegal in Qatar, and though the organisers of the World Cup have insisted that everyone is welcome it remains to be seen how public demonstrations of same-sex affection will be handled; earlier this year one of the men in charge of security at the tournament Major General Abdulaziz Abdullah al-Ansari, warned that rainbow flags may be taken from fans for their own protection”.
Apart from being gay, her background as a former international player could have contributed to the appointment, and she was a fervent supporter of possible opportunities for Wales in qualifying for the World Cup. For example, Professor McAllister (who won 24 caps for Wales) tweeted (with a link to her article in the Western Mail [WM]) that there was “…no time to waste if we’re (Wales) to ensure sustainable benefits from (Hashtag) Qatar 2022“.
Professor McAllister (with her partner) has a child, which would, of course, be legally proscribed in the country which hosted a contest that she exhorted Wales “to ensure sustainable benefits from”.
She may be particularly interested in the fact that last year, under the headline ‘DOCTOR BECOMES ‘FIRST’ QATARI TO PUBLICLY COME OUT AS GAY’ The Independent reported the feelings of one gay man. Nas Mohammed said: “I walked into a gay club and I knew I was 100 per cent gay. I went home and cried – I thought my life is in crisis. I thought I was going to go to hell, my life is damned”.
Underlining the dreadful position in Qatar, one leading Welsh football presenter, told The Eye last year: “A producer I work with is gay and he can’t go!”.
Like Professor McAllister the LGBT+ campaigner Peter Tatchell also went to Qatar but for very different reasons. He demonstrated against the anti-gay law in the country’s capital Doha, where he held up a placard which said: “Qatar arrests, jails and subjects LGBTs to ‘conversion’”.
As the Professor herself may have had in mind when she spoke of the World Cup being a chance to promote “respect for human rights”, the treatment of migrant workers in Qatar has attracted enormous controversy too.
There were allegations that huge numbers died building the tournament’s SEVEN stadiums costing over £6.5 billion, an expanded airport, and dozens of hotels. They were employed under a system known as ‘kafala’ (‘sponsorship’), but were described as being harshly treated and worked to the bone.
A leader in The Economist about these issues was headlined: “Is the World Cup a giant waste of money?”, and included the line: “…two-thirds of coverage in British media has been critical, focusing on the desert state’s poor human-rights record”.
Under the headline: Why Qatar makes this football fan so uneasy”, The Times columnist at the time, David Aaronovitch, stated: “…it is effectively a monarchical dictatorship”, as well as: “…I wouldn’t dream of going (to Qatar). Even watching from afar feels horribly like collusion. It’s all a bit sad”.
Broadcasts of the opening ceremony were NOT what the authorities in Qatar had expected, as the BBC concentrated on the treatment of migrant workers, highlighted corruption at football governing body FIFA, and discussed the ban on homosexuality. Match of the Day (MOTD) host Gary Lineker said: “It’s the most controversial World Cup in history and a ball hasn’t even been kicked”.
Authorities in Qatar, though, seemed pleased by the coverage of it all, and a continuing boost to the country’s profile. The Qatar World Cup chief Hassan Al Thawadi declared that the tournament changed perceptions of the region and transformed his country, while insisting there should be recognition for improved workers’ rights.
“This was a celebration of the Arab people, of our culture, of our tradition, of our history”, Mr Al Thawadi proclaimed during an interview in Qatar’s capital, Doha. “It was a platform for bringing people together in an unprecedented way. It changed the perception of this part of the world, and allowed us to showcase the best in us”, he added.
Unfortunately these fine words hid a dark reality. The Sunday Times, disclosed that the country had secretly offered £400 million to FIFA, just 21 days before being awarded the event.
Like migrant workers and people who are gay, women are also treated like second class citizens in the country Professor McAllister travelled to. Most must be veiled, and they need the permission of a male ‘guardian’, usually a father or brother, to marry, get a government job, or to apply for a university scholarship.
As with Professor McAllister’s UEFA appointment, the jubilations over Wales qualifying for the World Cup in Qatar, were not confined to English-language media. The Welsh-language magazine Golwg produced a wall chart, showing the teams in each group, and the progress that must be made to reach the World Cup final.
Even Welsh football fans were outraged at the fanfare in the mainstream media. One, Dafydd Jones, of Neath told The Eye: “I have always backed the Wales team, but all this hoopla about us qualifying for Qatar left me completely cold. Especially as we went out in the first round. After all – people can’t be gay there, and I have read about the money that changed hands to get the World Cup. It’s in the wrong place anyway, and Qatar should never have got it. The heat means they have had to move all the schedules back home!”.
But it seems that being gay has not hindered Professor Mcallister, who is now on the executive committee of UEFA, despite the major questions that have been raised about this appointment like appearing on television with a man later charged with making indecent pictures of children…
Details of stories like these, after 23 years with The BBC, and 39 years in journalism, by our Editor, football fan Phil Parry, as he was gripped by the rare neurological condition Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been released in a major book ‘A GOOD STORY’. Order it now!
Regrettably publication of another book, however, was refused, because it was to have included names.
Tomorrow – how the cliché witch-hunt is used all the time now, including by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson when he was forced to resign as an MP.
