A Malaysian man from Muar, Johor; Zulfadli Ahmad Tajudin, was denied entry into the Al-Byat Stadium in Qatar during the World Cup.
He was wearing a football jersey of Malaysia’s Kedah FC, which the authorities thought was the LGBTQ+ community’s Pride flag.
He spoke to Dari Tepi Padang and shared that he flew all the way from Muar to Qatar to watch the World Cup, and was disappointed with Qatar’s security.
He was detained after being denied entry into the stadium.
He was wearing the jersey of Kedah Darul Aman Football Club, which had a colourful checkered design, and he had no idea why he was being questioned at first.
He was detained by the security officials for more than 30 minutes before they told him that he was being suspected of supporting the LGBTQ+ community because of his jersey.
The security then took photos of his jersey and sent it to the management, before interrogating him further.
He had to Google the Kedah FC football team’s jersey and show the security to prove that his jersey was legit and that he was not representing the LGBTQ+ community.
But the security was still not satisfied with it as they asked him to continue waiting, and he was eventually released and given permission to watch the match later that night.