Doha: World Cup 2022 host Qatar has given the clearest indication yet that LGBT fans will be welcome, engaging with gay supporters as it hosts the Club World Cup -- despite criminalising homosexuality. Organisers of the 2022 soccer spectacle travelled to Britain in recent months to meet Liverpool fan clubs including the side's gay supporters' group, individuals briefed on the meeting have told AFP. Paul Amann, founder of Liverpool's LGBT supporters' club Kop Outs, then undertook a fact-finding mission to Doha along with his husband in November at the invitation of the World Cup organisers. "I'm very satisfied that their approach is to provide an 'everyone is welcome' ethos that does include respect, albeit through privacy," he told AFP. "I'm not sure if rainbow flags generally will ever be accepted 'in-country', but maybe in stadia." Amman said he felt "paranoia is not needed as people will not pry into your personal business". "There was clearly some apprehension, indeed my husband said on the eve of flying that he wished he had not agreed to go," the 50-year-old council worker wrote in a report for Kop Outs that he shared with AFP.

'Being gay is haram'
The Kop Outs boast 150 full members and thousands of followers on social media. It is unclear how many LGBT fans from Liverpool and the other six teams participating in the Club Cup will make the journey to the Gulf for the tournament. Club chief executive Peter Moore said in November that Liverpool had "received a number of assurances" on the issue from Qatari authorities. There are no openly gay or bisexual players in the English men's Premier League, but major clubs have implemented zero-tolerance policies for homophobia and embraced the "rainbow laces" campaign against discrimination. Openly LGBT players are well represented in the English women's game however, with former Lionesses captain, the defender Casey Stoney, the best known. The chief executive of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Nasser al-Khater said in September that "any fan, of any gender, (sexual) orientation, religion, race (should) rest assured that Qatar is one of the most safe countries in the world -- and they'll all be welcome here". However he stressed that "public displays of affection are frowned upon, it's not part of our culture -- but that goes across the board to everybody".