England fan ‘strip-searched’ after wearing rainbow-coloured top and hat
An England fan says he was strip-searched at the World Cup for wearing rainbow-coloured clothing.
Anthony Johnson, from London, was wearing a t-shirt with England’s official badge in rainbow colours and a baseball cap in the same colours.
He was attempting to enter the stadium to watch the match against the Netherlands and Qatar on Tuesday afternoon.
Anthony says he was initially made to take off his watch and belt – something he hadn’t been asked to do at other games.
He told The i: ‘When I went through again, a big burly security guard screamed in my face: “You don’t respect our culture.”
‘They then wand-ed me down.’
The football fan says the wand didn’t activate but staff still ushered him into a private area where Anthony was made to take off all his clothes including his underwear.
While the security guard was apologetic for the incident, the ordeal lasted 10 minutes.
When he came back to the scanners, he says his cap he had been made to take off had disappeared.
While security staff claimed he had not been wearing the cap, it was later found behind the scanner.
Anthony was then caught up in more security delays.
Security staff approached him when he was swiping his tickets and asked him to stand in the corner of the concourse.
Before long, seven people were stood around him including four police, one man in Fifa uniform and two in traditional Qatari dress.
Anthony was asked to remove his hat but the football fan hit back and said he was allowed to wear it. Fifa confirmed just three days ago rainbow flags and dress were acceptable in stadiums.
But he was then threatened by security staff who said if he didn’t take it off senior colleagues would be called.
Anthony was forced to wait 10 minutes and the game was about to start.
‘I said: “It’s getting close to the start of the game. I’m happy to take off the hat if you’ll put in writing in English your reasons for not allowing me to wear it.”
‘He said: “Fine, the senior person will do that.”
‘After another few minutes, a different policeman came over and told me I was allowed to go into the stadium.’
Qatar World Cup chief Hassan Al-Thawadi spoke to talkSport about reports of rainbow clothing being confiscated.
‘From day one, we have said everybody is welcome. We have also asked for people to come and respect our culture, our religion,’ he said.
‘We want everybody from every walk of life to come here and you’ve got people from every corner of the world engaging, educating themselves and having a good time.
‘But when it comes to a topic like this, it is a complicated topic. This is something for us, or at least for this part of the world, that is a fundamental part of religious values.’
Last week, an American journalist was detained by Qatari officials for wearing a rainbow on his t-shirt.
A US fan was also ‘aggressively’ dragged from the stands and had ‘his arm twisted back’ for wearing a rainbow-coloured band.
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