Salisbury man speaks out about Qatar ordeal
He was detained for over an hour for wearing a rainbow armband
Last updated 14th Dec 2022
A man from Salisbury has spoken to us about being detained by Qatari officials for wearing a rainbow pride armband at the world cup.
Mark Potts was at an official FIFA fanzone when he was escorted into a private area of the site on Sunday 4th December. He was held for over an hour, and was made to take the armband off, as well as being forced to sign a document confirming that he wouldn't wear the band again.
Mark also tried to take an audio recording of the incident, but he was forced to delete it. He says, "At half time in the game, a young boy came up to me and ask what the armband I was wearing was all about. I explained to him, and he said that he was going to get the police because it wasn't allowed.
"I didn't take him seriously, but about 5 minutes later a group of police approached me and asked me to remove it. I turned on the audio on my phone, thinking I would record the incident, and they didn't take kindly to that."
After he gave them the armband, he was taken to a secure area behind the festival, where a number of police officers asked him why he was wearing the armband, and told him that homosexuality is 'unnatural'.
When someone else arrived who could speak english, he claims, "They wrote everything down on a computer. They printed it out and they asked me to sign it. They then printed another document and asked me to sign to say that I would not repeat the action - that I would not wear the armband again"
Mark has been critical of FIFA, adding, "I'm probably more angry at FIFA than I am the Qatari authorities. FIFA promote these values of inclusiveness and anti-discrimination, and only an hour before I had been round an exhibition which FIFA sponsored which was promoting all these value. And then, a couple of hours later, I get detained.
"I have written to them about that whole incident and pointed out the hypocrisy"
We have approached FIFA for comment.