The Middle Eastern Sportswashing World Cup might just finally have gone over the edge!!!

There have been numerous reports of human-rights abuses, even during the Qatar World Cup.  It is one of the reasons that the official position of this blog, shaped by parties like my anonymous friend, is no on-field coverage.

On the other hand, all parties agreed that, should the circumstances require, abuses would be reported.

It now appears there is a non-zero chance that a famous soccer journalist has been murdered by the Qatari hosts for not bending the knee to the sportswashing realities and the Middle Eastern blood money.

Tonight, it was reported that Grant Wahl, who has covered soccer for the last 26 years, died during the quarterfinal match in Qatar today.

On it's own, it's a tragedy.

Once any digging under the surface occurs, it starts getting ugly fast.

Wahl had spent an amount of time, probably not only during the competition, but before it, criticizing the Qatari government and the entire nature that the Cup was being held there at all.

This was Wahl's final reporting post, from yesterday:

NEW: World Cup Daily, Day 25. They just don't care. Qatari World Cup organizers don't even hide their apathy over migrant worker deaths, including the most recent one.https://t.co/WEKoMdSm3J

— Subscribe to GrantWahl.com (@GrantWahl) December 8, 2022

His final post was at the end of regulation time of the second semifinal.

He was withheld from a match during the tournament for bringing a rainbow LGBTQ flag to the tournament -- and then briefly complained of a bronchitis-like situation on a soccer podcast before today's events.

And then this happened, according to the Twitter account of the Columbus Toffees, the official supporters' club for Everton Football Club of the EPL in Columbus, OH:

He visited a medical center TWICE. They did nothing. He collapsed today during the #ARGNED match. An ambulance did not take him to the hospital, he had to get an @Uber instead.

That. Is. Not. Normal. None of this is normal.

— 🇺🇦 Columbus Toffees (@ColumbusToffees) December 10, 2022

As a result, Grant's brother Erik (who has come out as part of this announcement as gay, and the reason Wahl took the flag to the tournament!) has publicly announced on social media that it is his belief the Qataris murdered Grant for speaking out against the government and his pro-LGBTQ protests during the tournament.  Erik alleges that, after being detained for the USA-Wales match due to the flag, he had been getting surveilled and was receiving death threats in the country as the tournament progressed.

This is Bruiser Brody-level stuff.  Brody was murdered as part of a promotion/money dispute by the bookers and owners of the World Wrestling Council in Puerto Rico in the showers after a card in 1988.  The entire handling of the doctors to the legal aspects of the trial indicates that the murder happened with the sanction of Puerto Rican society.

And it has very similar aspects to events coming out tonight regarding the death of Grant Wahl at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Grant Wahl was 47 -- his wife has worked with President Biden regarding COVID policy.  So if the belief of bronchitis is true (or similarly to COVID), we'll find that out in the days and weeks ahead.

The fact is, this is definitely stinking of, at minimum, open-faced negligent homicide.  And we'll know -- we will DAMN WELL KNOW -- if he was or was not healthy.

The extent to even tangential knowledge of this World Cup has fueled reactions such as this, farmed from Twitter tonight:

Everyone watching World Cup soccer is complicit in @GrantWahl death.

— Michael Kelly (@Michael1Kelly) December 10, 2022

At the barest of minimums, it appears that the Qataris put Wahl in a compromised position and he "died suddenly" of COVID (though see below on that contention).  The odds of this being a straight-up murder at the stadium in the height of a quarterfinal match, however, are far too high for anyone's comfort.

7:17 PM PST:  The AP report of how Wahl was feeling:

The @AP's first file confirms that Grant Wahl was stricken in the media area of the stadium during extra time of the ARG-NED game, and notes that he wrote about seeking treatment for a respiratory infection (not COVID) as recently as Monday.https://t.co/VS1aR1ahd9 pic.twitter.com/KGP7lfxOAL

— Ed Tubb (@EdTubb) December 10, 2022

Hmmm...  Cough syrup?  Could that have been... poisoned????

This post and future posts will be updated as more news comes out.

10:17 PM PST:  My anonymous friend found more angles this could take.  FIFA involved DIRECTLY?

Sports illustrated fired him for challenging their pay cuts during the pandemic.

He ran to unseat FIFA’s president.

He challenged human rights abuses in Qatar.

RIP Grant Wahl, who’s career was as much about great reporting as it was about speaking truth to abusive power.

— nikki mccann ramírez (@NikkiMcR) December 10, 2022

Nikki is a political reporter for Rolling Stone.

11:15 PM PST:  TMZ claims it's a heart attack.  ESPN can't even get his age right.