A designated ‘Pride Match’ at the 2026 FIFA World Cup in Seattle will feature the national teams of Egypt and Iran, two countries where homosexuality is criminalized. The local organizing committee in Seattle, a host city for the tournament, had planned this special Group G match as a celebration of the LGBTQ+ community well before the teams were assigned to the fixture, aligning with the city’s Pride weekend. After the draw and allocation, the Group G clash between Egypt and Iran on June 26 at Lumen Field was confirmed as the designated event.
The Seattle Pride Match branding is not ‘affiliated with or endorsed by FIFA’, as stated on the organizer’s website. This situation poses an early test for FIFA’s US organizers post-2022 World Cup in Qatar, another nation with anti-LGBTQ+ laws. Concerns over the safety of LGBTQ+ fans were raised by rights groups previously. FIFA even threatened players with yellow cards for wearing the OneLove armband in support of LGBTQ+ rights.
In Iran, homosexuality can be punished with the death penalty, while in Egypt, public morality laws are frequently used to suppress LGBTQ+ rights and relationships, resulting in arrests and prosecutions, as reported by Human Rights Watch. For the US World Cup, organizing committees in various cities are managing the events. SeattleFWC26, Seattle’s organizing group, has selected three Washington state artists to create artwork celebrating LGBTQ+ individuals for display throughout the city during the World Cup.
Deixe um comentário