British man arrested in UAE for wearing a Qatar shirt!!

ZaphodBeeblerox · 2019-02-05T12:33:50+00:00

Usually when people post "These Arabs so cray" stories of Brits on holiday getting in trouble for drinking in public, or having sex in public etc I have little sympathy. But this sounds ridiculous!

Original poster

ZaphodBeeblerox · 05/02/2019 12:34

Posted too quickly : www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/05/british-man-detained-in-uae-after-wearing-qatar-football-t-shirt-to-match?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

This football fan went to see Qatar play Iraq in a match and got arrested for wearing a Qatar shirt????

OP posts:

scaryteacher · 05/02/2019 18:21

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017%E2%80%9319_Qatar_diplomatic_crisis

UAE has severed ties with Qatar as there is an ongoing diplomatic crisis. hardly tactful and diplomatic to wear a Qatar shirt was it?

gamerchick · 05/02/2019 18:27

I dunno people are weird about football shirts in general. My mother took middle kid to Sunderland once dressed in a Newcastle top. She ended up grabbing a top from a charity shop to put over it.

Football brings out strangeness.

MissionItsPossible · 05/02/2019 18:30

It’s the UAE. God forbid if I ever went or had to go there but if I did I would be reading and researching everything I could find knowing one wrong move could see me imprisoned.

Original poster

ZaphodBeeblerox · 05/02/2019 19:31

I know that @scaryteacher but it was a game between Qatar and Iraq that he went for. Wouldn’t some people at least be supporting Qatar? It’s not like he wore an incendiary tee shirt to go to a big mosque in the middle of Dubai!

OP posts:

SavoyCabbage · 05/02/2019 19:35

You can’t even buy a red car in Newcastle never mind a Sunderland shirt!

Craft1905 · 05/02/2019 20:03

If people are daft enough to go to the UAE, Saudi, or any other Middle Eastern theocratic hellhole, they should be half expecting to get locked up for whistling, or scratching their ear, or having a bad haircut, or any other ludicrous reason.

HaudYerWheeshtYaWeeBellend · 05/02/2019 20:07

You can’t even buy a red car in Newcastle never mind a Sunderland shirt!

I bought a Sunderland top in Newcastle last week

It was a football game, it’s completly unjustified.

TearingUpMyHeart · 05/02/2019 20:09

Looks like he went to the police station to complain about police brutality. That's where things will have started going really badly wrong for him.

TalkinPeece · 05/02/2019 20:13

www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/united-arab-emirates

Maybe muppet Brits will stop propping up the dodgy gulf states

IcedPurple · 05/02/2019 20:13

UAE has severed ties with Qatar as there is an ongoing diplomatic crisis. hardly tactful and diplomatic to wear a Qatar shirt was it?

Are you suggesting he should have been arrested for wearing a football shirt of an out of favour country?

Because it sounds as though you are. Do you think visitors to the UK should also be arrested if they wear a football shirt from a country with which the UK has cut diplomatic relations?

CoughLaughFart · 05/02/2019 20:18

UAE has severed ties with Qatar as there is an ongoing diplomatic crisis. hardly tactful and diplomatic to wear a Qatar shirt was it

That doesn’t mean he’s committed a crime. Ridiculous.

XiCi · 05/02/2019 20:21

Looks like he went to the police station to complain about police brutality. That's where things will have started going really badly wrong for him

Exactly this. Holy fuck, how naive would you have to be to think this was a good idea anywhere in the world. If he'd just gone back to his hotel room and thought himself lucky to have got away with wearing a Qatar shirt he'd be OK. I mean why was he wearing one anyway, seems deliberately inflammatory.

I also know from experience that there is usually alot more to these stories than is first reported

MissionItsPossible · 05/02/2019 20:22

@CoughLaughFart
That doesn’t mean he’s committed a crime. Ridiculous.

Was your comment made by a mindset of criminal offence in (I presume) this country or are you from the UAE? If it is a criminal offence in that country then it’s a criminal offence, no matter what standards you are judging by other countries.

missyB1 · 05/02/2019 20:24

And this is why I won’t set foot in any of those Countries. I know lots of British people go to make money, or live it up in expensive hotels. But I can’t stand their human rights record, and I won’t go and spend my hard earned cash there.
It doesn’t surprise me whatever crazy shit goes in there.

Burlea · 05/02/2019 20:26

Isn't the next world cup in Qatar. What's going to happen then.

WTFIsAGleepglorp · 05/02/2019 20:29

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-47135629

The man is a moron.

Who goes to a totalitarian country where dissent and free speech are utterly crushed and then attempts to make a complaint about getting beaten up?

origamiunicorn · 05/02/2019 20:37

And this is why I won’t set foot in any of those Countries. I know lots of British people go to make money, or live it up in expensive hotels. But I can’t stand their human rights record, and I won’t go and spend my hard earned cash there.

^ This. I saw a program on the UAE recently and they were saying the outer appearance of bring the best, the tallest, the most glitzy masks a very corrupt core. I want to travel to most places in the world but the UAE is one place I'm happy dying without setting foot there.

stopfuckingshoutingatme · 05/02/2019 20:50

He didn’t do his homework did he ? It’s a Massive deal in that part of the world
I mean I do t agree with it but people
Need to do their homework sadly

DontCallMeCharlotte · 05/02/2019 20:52

But the tournament was being held in the UAE - to not be able to support one of the teams in it is bloody ridiculous and as Burlea alluded to, the next World Cup is going to be a total farce.

userblablabla · 05/02/2019 20:59

Even expressing sympathy with Qatar via any form of communication is illegal there. So I’m not surprised.

ChipButtyNotABap · 05/02/2019 21:49

Just like the woman who was reported for being arrested for having a glass of wine on her flight over... it'll be about something else.l that will come out.

In the woman's case, she was illegally running a Botox clinic in people's homes with scant regard for safety or legally, tried to use two passports without a proper visa to get in, and then heavily abused the airport staff 🙄 It's always something else that actually then makes sense... but that wouldn't sell papers or advertising now, would it?

scaryteacher · 05/02/2019 22:27

IcedPurple Are you suggesting he should have been arrested for wearing a football shirt of an out of favour country?

Because it sounds as though you are.

I didn't say that I was suggesting that; rather that if you go to somewhere like the UAE, which has cut ties with Qatar, and wear a shirt supporting Qatar, you might expect there to be problems. Since when does hardly tactful and diplomatic translate into I think he should be arrested? I would merely note that the UAE perhaps doesn't adhere to the same liberal standards that we do in the UK.

scaryteacher · 05/02/2019 22:32

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/02/05/british-man-arrested-wearing-qatar-football-shirt-uae/

It clearly states in the article as a pp said upthread that it is illegal in the UAE to show any support for Qatar.

DontCallMeCharlotte · 05/02/2019 22:58

It might be clear in the article but I wonder where the tourist would have seen it? I would certainly check rules for UAE if I were going there (which I never will), but it certainly wouldn't occur to me to check regarding other countries' football shirts.

The FCO website says:

The UAE authorities announced on 7 June 2017 that showing sympathy for Qatar on social media or by any other means of communication is an offence. Offenders could be imprisoned and subject to a substantial fine.

Wouldn't occur to me given that the Quatari football team was in the country at the time that supporting their football team would be included? And how many of us read the FCO website before we go anywhere?