Qatar\u2019s emir has thanked Vladimir Putin for Russia\u2019s great support in organising the 2022 World Cup and said he is \u201cproud\u201d of the relationship between the two countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Russia has been a sporting and political pariah since the invasion of Ukraine but Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani went out of his way to praise Putin at a meeting between the men in Astana, Kazakhstan, on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His comments came as the chief of the World Cup organising committee, Nasser al-Khater, warned against the tournament becoming a \u201cplatform of political statements\u201d amid plans by some captains, including England\u2019s Harry Kane, to wear a \u2018One Love\u2019 armband during games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The interventions give a clearer indication of Qatar\u2019s position just over five weeks before the tournament begins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The emir said: \u201cAfter Russia made a great success in organising the 2018 World Cup, Russian friends have provided great support to Qatar, especially in terms of organisation, with the organising committee of the 2022 World Cup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe thank you for this and we are proud of this relationship. This will continue until the end of the World Cup. I am very happy to see you, Mr president. Thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Putin returned the compliment by promising the emir that Russia was \u201cdoing everything we can in terms of transferring the experience of preparing for the World Cup\u201d, adding: \u201cI\u2019m sure that it will be a success.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Neither leader specified how Russia has helped Qatar, the first Arab country to host the World Cup. But one area in which Qatar has followed Russia\u2019s example is by requiring fans to sign up for a mandatory ID, known as a Hayya Card, to enter the country and World Cup stadiums.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile Khater, asked about the armbands in an interview with Sky News, said he had read about them in the press but did not know anything official. \u201cThis is a sporting tournament that people want to come and enjoy,\u201d the chief executive of the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, said. \u201cTurning it into a platform of political statements, I don\u2019t think is right for the sport.\u201dQuick Guide<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In response to Khater\u2019s interview, James Cleverly, the foreign secretary, said he would \u201cabsolutely support\u201d Kane and the Football Association\u2019s stance on the armband. Fifa is yet to give its approval to the armband but it is understood England intend to use it regardless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Khater confirmed that fans would be free to display rainbow flags in Qatar and that gay fans would be able to hold hands in public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAt the end of the day, as long as you don\u2019t do anything that harms other people, if you\u2019re not destroying public property, as long as you\u2019re behaving in a way that\u2019s not harmful, then everybody\u2019s welcome and you have nothing to worry about,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Khater was asked whether he felt criticism levelled at Qatar had been racist and replied: \u201cI\u2019m not going to get into what the intentions of other people are. I\u2019m not going to get into the minds and souls of other people. But, you know, who knows? Possibly.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Qatar\u2019s emir has thanked Vladimir Putin for Russia\u2019s great support in organising the 2022 World Cup and said he is \u201cproud\u201d of the relationship between the two countries. Russia has been a sporting and political pariah since the invasion of Ukraine but Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani went out of his way to praise Putin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":26479,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3295],"tags":[5569,12635,10739,1258,9026,5500,5247,6225,7090,6560,11537,69,1259,12234,11493,5252,893,6220,9833,12309,11973,8386,3805,6544,71,8552,1359,12938,3457,5217,8547,8237,9271,9030,5180,694,3954,36,5248,594],"class_list":["post-26478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-sport","tag-arab","tag-delivery","tag-display","tag-england","tag-fans","tag-fifa","tag-football","tag-friends","tag-games","tag-gay","tag-harmful","tag-harry","tag-harry-kane","tag-host","tag-interview","tag-invasion","tag-james-cleverly","tag-love","tag-meeting","tag-men","tag-one","tag-platform","tag-president","tag-property","tag-putin","tag-qatar","tag-qater","tag-racist","tag-russia","tag-russian","tag-sheikh","tag-sheikh-tamim-bin-hamad-al-thani","tag-sky","tag-success","tag-ukraine","tag-vladimir-putin","tag-will","tag-world","tag-world-cup","tag-who"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26478\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}