Soccer Journalist Dies at World Cup After Collapsing at Argentina Game
Grant Wahl, a highly regarded soccer journalist who wrote extensively on the game, died Friday in Qatar, where he was covering the World Cup quarterfinal match between Argentina and the Netherlands.
Wahl’s agent, Tim Scanlan, confirmed the death in a phone interview on Friday night. Scanlan said that Wahl had been in the press box in the closing minutes of the match when he went into acute distress.
He is believed to have died, Scanlan said, at a hospital in Qatar or while he was being taken to one, after feeling unwell as the tournament proceeded.
“He wasn’t sleeping well, and I asked him if he tried melatonin or anything like,” Scanlan said. “He said, ‘I just need to like relax for a bit.’”
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The reason I am posting this in the LGBT group is because:
Earlier in the tournament, Wahl attracted attention for attending the game between Wales and the United States wearing a rainbow T-shirt, in support of L.G.B.T.Q. rights. Homosexuality is criminalized in Qatar, and some fans wearing rainbows on their clothing or carrying rainbow flags have been questioned by stadium security guards.
Wahl wrote that security guards at Ahmad bin Ali Stadium detained him for 25 minutes, telling him that his shirt was political and that he needed to take it off. Wahl refused, and eventually a security supervisor apologized and let him into the stadium.
We should acknowledge the loss of an ally.