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DFB director Oliver Bierhoff
Photo: ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT / AFP
Just a few months ago, after visits to the World Cup host country Qatar, DFB director Oliver Bierhoff spoke of an “important partner for Germany in the Arab world” and a “driver of developments”.
In the meantime, the 54-year-old said in response to research by RTL/ntv on the situation of homosexuals in the emirate, he was very critical of the World Cup being awarded to Qatar.
»On the one hand, I always thought at the beginning: Who owns the football?
Does it only belong to Europe, does it only belong to South America – or does it belong to the whole world?” said Bierhoff.
So initially, the idea of playing football around the world still seemed right to him.
But "the world has also changed," said Bierhoff, and he added: "The requirements, the demands are different, including the fans, the people.
In that respect you have to take that into account.« He asked himself: »Yes, how could Fifa bring the World Cup to this country?«
RTL had broadcast the report “Red card instead of rainbow – homosexuals in Qatar” on Thursday night.
She can be seen on ntv today at 3.40 p.m.
In it, the two RTL reporters managed to get homosexual Qataris in front of the camera and to ask them about the situation.
One interviewee said »We have an existential fear of punishment and death because what we learned in our youth is that being gay is an aberration, not a natural thing.«
It is to be criticized, said Oliver Bierhoff, that "in the first point, attention was perhaps only paid to stadiums or other points, or of course commerce, and not to aspects such as human rights or other social issues".
The German Football Association must also act on a change in the award criteria and thus make it clear “that the next award will only be made to countries in which such things do not happen”.
Bierhoff would not advise people from the LGBTQI+ community to travel to Qatar
Oliver Bierhoff would not recommend a trip to Qatar to his personal acquaintance from the LGBTIQ+ community without hesitation.
'It's hard, it's hard.
I dont know".
The person in his distant circle of acquaintances also came "from the Arab world" and lived "constantly in fear of being caught," said Bierhoff.
“I mean, the bad thing is, of course, the social ostracism that one hears out of it.
The other thing is when you are afraid in your life and then you are also patronized by a state institution - that is of course dramatic."
Homosexual acts are criminalized in Qatar.
Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani recently asserted that "all people are welcome" to the World Cup in winter (November 21 to December 18), although visitors must respect the national culture.
Germany goalkeeper Manuel Neuer has left open whether he wants to wear a rainbow-style captain's armband at the World Cup.
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