Watch: FIFA promoter asks Qatar police to remove OneLove team from air | World news

Qatari police told a Danish journalist to remove a OneLove armband while filming the World Cup segment in Doha. Jon Pagh, from Danish station TV 2 Sport, was filming outside the Denmark team’s hotel when local police stopped him.

In a video shared on social media, the official can be seen telling the journalist that he must remove the weapon, which is controversial during the FIFA World Cup 2022 as homosexuality is illegal in Qatar.

Jon Pagh refused to remove it, saying, “I respect that you told me, but I can’t remove it. Why is it not allowed? Is it because of the colors?”

Read more: FIFA World Cup reporter woke up while on air, surprised by police response: Report

The policeman said “yes” before answering by pushing the camera. “It’s a love,” Jon Pagh protested.

“Just respect everyone.”

The Danish reporter said later, “I think that when we are here, we must be careful about being active, and we must be especially careful about aggressive situations, but it is never in my mind that it will provoke anything.”

“I myself am also very careful not to be active, but the same political message is in the FIFA rules and human rights,” he added.

“For me it is not politics. It is human rights. It is a piece of clothing that I wear and which is in the West and according to all human rights I am allowed to wear it. I really hope no one takes this as an attempt to provoke anything. We stopped in the dark, thirty kilometers in the desert. I didn’t think for a second that this could be a problem,” he told local media.

The leaders of England, Wales, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany and Denmark are set to wear OneLove armbands at the World Cup, in a show of support for the LGBTQ+ community. But they announced in a joint statement on Monday that the plan has been abandoned.