‘It’s not safe and it’s not right.’ Qatar says all are welcome to the World Cup

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“I’m a man and I love men. I do – please don’t be shocked – have sex with other men. This is normal. So please get used to it, or stay out of football.”

Dario Minden was a relatively unknown German football fan before a video of a powerful speech he made was widely shared on social media in September.

For the majority of the 15-minute talk he spoke in his native German before switching to English, a change he deliberately made, he says, for impact. He wanted the world to hear.

Looking directly at Qatar’s ambassador to Germany, Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Saud al-Thani, in a room full of dignitaries and sponsors at a human rights conference in Frankfurt, hosted by the German Football Association, he said his impactful words. Sitting in the front row, the camera pans briefly to al-Thani and shows him looking at and listening to Minden.

“Football is for everyone,” Minden continued. “It doesn’t matter if you’re lesbian, if you’re gay, it’s for everyone. For the boys, for the girls and for everyone in between … The rule that football is for everyone is so important. We cannot allow you to break it no matter how rich you are. You are more than welcome to join the international football community and, also, of course, to host a big tournament. But in sports, it is how it is. You have to accept the rules.”

When Minden finishes, a sprinkling of applause can be heard from some members of the audience.

That he loves men and has sex with men isn’t an issue in his homeland, but it is in Qatar, a country which from Sunday will be hosting the month-long World Cup, one of sport’s biggest and most lucrative events.

As the first World Cup to be held in the Middle East, it is undoubtedly a historic event, but it is also one clouded by controversy, from the death of migrant workers and the conditions many have endured as the Gulf state prepared for the tournament, to LGBTQ and women’s rights.

Homosexuality in Qatar is illegal and punishable by up to three years in prison. A report from Human Rights Watch, published last month, documented cases as recently as September of Qatari security forces arbitrarily arresting LGBT people and subjecting them to “ill-treatment in detention.”

Speaking to CNN, Minden said he would not be going to Qatar and would not be watching the competition on television.

“When we talk about the situation for the LGBTQ+ rights, we mean not only the football tourists, but also the situation before, and…