LETTER FROM QATAR

A YOUNG security guard beckoned me back to the X-ray bag scanner and asked to see inside my rucksack.

Baffled, I unloaded my gym kit onto the belt and watched as he examined my tatty sportswear with forensic zeal.

There was nothing more dangerous in there than a washed-out T-shirt and a pair of tracksuit bottoms.

But it was only after the greatest display of rigour that the guard – among thousands hired specially for the World Cup – waved me into the restricted media site.

When I asked him what might have been the problem, he admitted thinking there had been a rainbow flag inside.

I couldn’t help grinning as I realised the suspect item was my rather sickly coloured purple, yellow and pink checked swimming shorts. The episode was farcical but serves to highlight tension on the ground in Qatar over this symbol.

Pumped-up jobsworths like this have been told to seize any items displaying that spectrum of seven colours, which signify hope and tolerance and all that is good.

But nobody on the planet can have missed the row over whether England’s players would or would not be allowed to wear the rainbow armband.

Welsh FA chiefs held talks with Fifa after the stadium’s goons confiscated rainbow-coloured bucket hats from fans, which has led to an apparent U-turn.

Last week, I was savaged by some British expats over the press coverage of LGBTQ+ rights and the other controversies.

When I pointed out the insanity of criminalising same-sex relationships, I was reminded that they were banned when we won the World Cup in 1966.

But, inexcusable as that was, times have changed.

Many fans were barred from this tournament because of their sexuality. And that just isn’t funny.