A number of venues in Birmingham’s Gay Village are not planning to show any matches from the Qatar World Cup, in response to the criminalisation of LGBTQ+ relationships there.
Lawrence Barton, a businessman named yesterday as the Birmingham Night-time Economy Champion, runs multiple venues in the area.
He has stated that despite excellent turnout to his venues when screening prior World Cups, the country’s record of sustained discrimination against LGBTQ+ people means he does not want to support the tournament.
He told the BBC that “community matters more than making money”, and “there is no way I could ever consider profiting from knowing that that is the situation in Qatar with our community”.