The emirate, which has massively invested across the Channel in recent years, has not appreciated that London transport prohibits Qatari tourist advertisements and that the BBC1 channel did not disseminate the opening ceremony of the World Cup.
by Eric Albert (London, Correspondence) and Benjamin Barthe (Special Envoy to Doha)
Relations between London and Doha have suddenly tense in recent days. After weeks of criticism in the British media against the Qatari World Cup, which led to the ban on emirate advertisements in the metro and London buses, the authorities of the emirate threaten to withdraw their investments from the British capital. The information was revealed Friday, November 25 by the Financial Times and confirmed to the world by a source close to the leaders of Doha. “The Qataris have decided to review their investments in London. They keep good relations with the British conservative government, but they will redirect their investments in other cities of the kingdom,” said this source.
The drop that overflowed the vase came from transport for London (TFL), the public transport management of the British capital. Since 2019, at the request of Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, who presides over it, it has been supposed to ban advertisements from countries imposing the death penalty against homosexuality. Qatar figures – with ten other states – on the list to which the London authorities refer. In reality, emirate advertisements continued to appear regularly in the metro and on London buses.
But, due to the “increased sensitivity” of public opinion on the issue of LGBT+ in Qatar, especially after the International Football Federation (FIFA) refused the wearing of a armband calling for the fight against The discrimination requested by several European teams, TFL hardened the application of this rule. The advertisements for the World Cup are authorized, “so that the supporters do not lack the possibility of supporting their team”, but not those encouraging tourism in Qatar.
Critics instead of the ceremony opening
Questioned by MO12345lemonde, the Qatari authorities formally denied that homosexuality is liable to the death penalty in their country. According to a recent report from the human rights NGO Human Rights Watch, the Qatari penal code punishes extra-marital relations, including relations between people of the same sex, of a maximum of seven years in prison.
Emirate officials deplore the treatment of the World Cup by the British media, which they perceive as a deliberate denigration campaign. The BBC, which has the rights to part of the matches, has not broadcast the opening ceremony on its main channel (BBC1). It was not a boycott proper, since the celebrations were accessible on his website or on his secondary channels, but it was a way of distant from the event.
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