Two weeks ago, Beckham, donning dark sunglasses, posed alongside the British sculptor Hugo Dalton and his installation of golden goal posts on Doha’s Lusail City Marina. In a video message to a youth festival in Doha on Thursday he claimed the World Cup would be a platform for progress, inclusivity and tolerance. It is his image flashing across Qatari World Cup Snapchat and Instagram channels. “The modern and traditional fuse to create something really special,” he said. This summer, Beckham, 47, took part in a promotional film for Visit Qatar in which he spoke of the pride of Qataris about their culture. There is not so much an LGBTQ+ community in Qatar as a disparate collection of terrified individuals. Under an interpretation of sharia law, it can lead to a death sentence. Same-sex sexual activity is punishable by seven years in prison in Qatar. “I see that his future will be ruined but at least he will have some millions,” said Fahad, who as a younger man spent two and a half months in solitary confinement in a Qatari prison for the crime of wearing makeup. But the former footballer’s decision to accept the fortune from the royal house of Thani and take up the ambassadorial role is, to Fahad’s mind, a damnable pact worthy only of scorn. Anyhow, it was, as the Football Association was quick to point out, a personal visit, which is obviously true.Fahad tries to be understanding about the temptation posed by the £150m deal that Beckham is said to have been offered by Qatar, albeit the value of the contract is disputed. Those arguments have evaporated and footage of Beckham’s visit has now been released. His visit to the England camp actually took place a couple of weeks ago when the arguments over the wearing of the One Love, multi-coloured armband - with England amongst those at the centre - were still rumbling on. The man who once said he was proud to be a gay icon is the poster boy for a nation in which same-sex relationships are punishable by imprisonment. He does not say much to promote it but his face is everywhere. The figures are disputed - some claim his deal is worth £150million - but he is earning a fortune to promote the state.

It is a genuinely touching moment.Īlas, a part of Beckham’s legacy now is that he was bought by Qatar. In the video released by England, there is also footage of Southgate hugging Becks after presenting him with a shirt with his ‘legacy number’ on it. And he also set a new commercial benchmark for successful, high-profile footballers.

He won 115 England caps, was a good captain - not ‘great’ as Harry Kane suggested - and scored in three World Cups. To say the younger players in Gareth Southgate’s squad were in awe would not be too much of an understatement. To see footage of Bukayo Saka asking for a selfie with David Beckham at the England training camp was to be reminded of the esteem in which he is held by generations of footballers that have followed him.

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