Former Wales captain ‘forced out of World Cup stadium’
FORMER Wales captain Laura Mcallister has detailed the moment she was forced out of the ground to remove her rainbow-coloured bucket hat ahead of the game with the USA because it was deemed a “banned symbol”.
FIFA has been at pains to insist this tournament will be used to promote equality for all, however several incidents have already reared their head which have caused concern.
One American journalist was detained for wearing a T-shirt with a rainbow on it ahead of the Usa-wales clash. And, in a similar vein to the problems encountered by US reporter Grant Wahl, Laura Mcallister, a former Wales
Women’s skipper, revealed she was told to remove her iconic bucket hat, emblazoned with the LGBT+ rainbow symbol, and put it in lost property.
She believes she had the last laugh, however, because she managed to sneak it in.
“We were aware while we were queuing up that people wearing a rainbow bucket hat, which is a symbol of the LGBT Rainbow Wall in Wales, they had their hats taken off them,” Mcallister told ITV.
“So, clearly, I wasn’t going to take my hat off. But some of the other fans were aware that was likely to happen. Then when we got through security, some of the security guards said we had to take the hat off. When I asked them why, they said because it was a banned symbol and we weren’t allowed to wear it in the stadium.
“I pointed out that FIFA had made lots of comments about supporting LGBT rights in this tournament. Coming from a nation where we are passionate about ensuring there is quality for all, I wasn’t going to take my hat off.
“I know some of the other fans filmed parts of that. They were insistent that unless I took the hat off, we weren’t allowed to come into the stadium. We had to leave it in a lost property area. We were forced to go back out of the stadium and take it to a lost property area.”