SHAMEFUL

American Man Booted From World Cup Match for Wearing Rainbow Armband

The man told a Danish reporter he was allowed through security with a rainbow armband, before Qatari police told him to remove it, grabbing him and twisted his arm.

An American man was thrown out of the U.S. vs Iran World Cup match in Qatar Tuesday for wearing a rainbow wristband, TV2 in Denmark reported. This comes on the heels of FIFA punting plans for team captains to wear rainbow armbands to advocate for LGBTQ rights in the country—where homosexuality remains illegal. Mere hours before that plan was set to go into play, FIFA reversed course and said they’d hand yellow cards to players who wore the armbands. The American, Brian Davis, said he went through security wearing the armband and was told it was fine to wear. Members of the Qatari police then approached him, saying he needed to remove the band. He said this was followed by several of the officers grabbing him and “fairly aggressively” twisting his arms back. The move contradicted FIFA’s public statements, which said fans are allowed to wear rainbow colors in stadiums. Davis later tweeted a photo of himself in the stadium holding a thumbs up, with the caption “Today was a bit eventful. But [I’m] ready for the game.”