What did Qatar World Cup chief say about Gary Lineker? Hassan Al-Thawadi accuses BBC of ‘racist’ coverage

As the action continues on the pitch at the 20022 FIFA World Cup finals the tournament continues to be the centre of major controversy.

Qatar’s record on human rights, LGBTQ+ laws and treatment of migrant workers have been highlighted by most of the UK’s major broadcasters and news outlets throughout the competition. This has seen a pushback from the organisers of the tournament and has led to a very public spat between a key official and one of our country’s most recognisable TV presenters. Here is what has been said by Hassan Al Thawadi and Gary Linkeker in interviews and online over the past few days:

Who is Hassan Al-Thawadi?

Hassan Al Thawadi’s title is “Secretary General of the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy of the Qatar World Cup” while he also serves as Chairman of the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Mr Al-Thawadi has been the public face of the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup over the past few months and also recently appeared in the Netflix docuseries “FIFA Uncovered” which explored the awarding of the tournament to the Gulf State. A lawyer by profession, Mr Al-Thawadi has ties to the UK having studied and graduated from the University of Sheffield.

What did Hassan Al-Thawadi say about Gary Lineker?

Mr Al Thawadi sparked the debate when he referred to the BBC’s coverage of the 2022 FIFA World Cup so far as “very racist”. He was specifically referring to comments made by pundit Jurgen Kilnsman but also went on to discuss Match of the Day host Gary Linkeker.

In an interview with TalkSPORT, he said: “Unfortunately, I’ve seen some of the coverage that seems to be kind of pushing towards that stereotype of the Middle East. I’ll give an example: the Iran-Wales game. Iran played very good – would you say so? They were the better team, up until the 95th or 96 minute, right?

“And, yet, the coverage that we saw, for example, on BBC, by Jurgen Klinsmann, talking about how it’s part of their culture, and reflecting the players in a way that was – I hate using the word but I will use only once just because I don’t ever want to give power to the word – very, very elitist, very orientalist, very racist to a certain extent.

“When you’re sitting down looking at what was happening and you’re saying, ‘That’s part of their culture’, what do you mean by that? Was it misunderstood or was it was a reflection he was representing a culture in a very negative way?”

“When it comes to statements that come out, for example, from Roy or from Gary, or whoever else it is, there was no engagement.”

He went on to say: “The sad part, for example, for me: Gary Lineker, as I was growing up, I looked up to him. I used to look at ‘They Think It’s All Over’. For me, it was a show that I used to love watching. I loved the banter, I loved the sense of humour, I loved everything about it. And so, for me, it’s very disappointing that Gary never bothered to engage, and I say it openly.

“He never bothered to engage. We reached out. We reached out many times. In February, we reached out over three or four times, specifically requesting to engage with Gary, to sit down and say, ‘We understand your position. Give us the opportunity to put our case in front. At least hear us out. If you don’t agree then, that’s fine, that’s your decision, and that’s your judgement’. But we never got the chance. There was never the desire to listen to our part of the story.”

How did Gary Lineker respond to Hassan Al-Thawadi?

Lineker responded to the comments made by Mr Al-Thawadi on his Twitter profile yesterday (November 28). Quote tweeting the section of the TalkSPORT interview concerning him, the former Leicester City and England striker wrote: “Well, this is news to me. Neither my agent nor myself received any request to engage with anyone involved with Qatar 2022. I have my weaknesses, but I’m not that rude. Very odd.”

Linker’s tweet has received over 12,800 like while the original tweet from the official TalkSport account has just 1309 at the time of publication.