A friendly between Cultural Leonesa and the Qatar team ends with the expulsion of a fan for protesting against the World Cup

Akram Afif disputes the ball with Juan Cruz, during the friendly match between Cultural Leonesa and the Qatar team. Eloy Alonso (EFE)

A fan was expelled on Friday afternoon from the Cultural and Sports Leonesa stadium for displaying a banner against the Qatar World Cup in a friendly match between the local team and the Qatari soccer team.

The fan was in the stands with a sign that read: "Where are the Human Rights in Qatar?".

The Qatari regime, which organizes the next World Cup event, has been criticized for the working conditions of the workers at the facilities and for the deaths caused in its construction.

The fan associations have reproached the Leonese entity for throwing out that person and have condemned what they consider an attack on freedom of expression.

The Federation of shareholders and partners of Spanish football has roundly condemned what happened in the Leonese fiefdom: “A person was expelled from a stadium in our country for displaying a banner questioning the violation of human rights in Qatar.

Our stadiums are places where citizens are deprived of our constitutional right to free expression.”

The tweet, in which it was reported that the bearer of the claiming comment had been expelled from the stadium, soon spread massively and led to multiple comments reluctant to the management carried out by Cultural and against FIFA's decision that the World Cup be hosted in the dictatorial regime of Qatar.

Yesterday a person was expelled from a stadium in our country for displaying a banner questioning the violation of human rights in Qatar.

Our stadiums are places where citizens are deprived of our constitutional right to free expression https://t.co/qsdPQop97C

– FASFE (@FASFEaficion) September 3, 2022

The controversy comes a few months after the celebration of the World Cup, which begins in November, in a country in which figures of some 6,500 migrant workers who died during the construction of the stadiums of the first World Cup held on non-summer dates have emerged. .

The general director of the Leonese club, Felipe Llamazares, was opposed to the fan wearing the sign with that message. "The celebration of the opening match of the Centenary was neither the time nor the place for political claims," ​​said the senior official Cultural that alluded only to the football field.

"It was a great match to kick off the centenary of the Cultural and Sports Leonesa where more than 8,000 people enjoyed kicking off our centenary," added Llamazares.

The reason for the visit of the Qatari national team to the Reino de León stadium was due to the centenary events of the local team, which has had a relationship with this country for several years and through which several Qatari players have passed.

The Qatar team is on a tour of Europe in which they have played several games.

The visiting team beat Cultural Leonesa, which plays in the RFEF First Division, by 0-3 in an event that brought together some 8,000 people in the Leonese stands.

Emilio Abejón, general secretary of the Federation of shareholders and partners of Spanish football, condemned what happened in León and blames it on the increasing limitations to which fans are exposed.

“It is one more example of the gradual loss of rights and freedoms that people who go to the stadiums suffer.

Our stadiums are places where the right to free expression guaranteed by our Constitution is suspended by virtue of anti-violence legislation that gives party organizers a power that they often use to violate precisely the rights that legislation seeks to protect. , he exposed.

Abejón maintains that “in the party it is evident when the owners of Cultural Leonesa try to silence legitimate criticism,

expressed peacefully and in defense of fundamental rights, but which precisely criticized its violation in the country of origin of the club's owners."

"Our government must get into the matter and not allow these abuses that are often allowed by action or omission by the State security forces and bodies deployed in the stadiums," Abejón closed.

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