Soccer Journalist who was detained for wearing a rainbow shirt at the World Cup, passes on in Qatar

 Soccer Journalist who was detained for wearing a rainbow shirt at the World Cup, passes on in Qatar

One of America's leading soccer reporters, who made headlines when he was detained at the Qatar World Cup for wearing a rainbow shirt, has died on Friday while covering the quarterfinals in Doha, according to his wife and the US Soccer federation.

According to NPR, Wahl, 48, collapsed in the press tribune as Friday's Argentina-Netherlands match was winding down. Paramedics performed CPR at the scene before taking him away on a stretcher. The Wall Street Journal said Wahl apparently suffered a heart att@ck.

"Grant made soccer his life's work, and we are devastated that he and his brilliant writing will no longer be with us," US Soccer said in a statement. It said the "entire US Soccer family is heartbroken." Wahl's wife Celine Gounder, a renowned epidemiologist and expert on infectious diseases, tweeted: "I'm in complete shock."

Mr Wahl said in a tweet on November 21 that he was briefly detained by security staff when he tried to enter a World Cup stadium in Qatar while wearing a rainbow shirt in support of the LGBTQ community. He said he had refused to remove the shirt. Same-s#x relations are illegal in Qatar.

Wahl said on his subscription newsletter earlier this week that he'd gone to a clinic at the media centre in Qatar, "and they said I probably have bronchitis."

"My body finally broke down on me. Three weeks of little sleep, high stress and lots of work can do that to you... I could feel my upper chest take on a new level of pressure and discomfort," he wrote.