The airline Lufthansa said it would use a plane with the badge “#DiversityWins!” by moving the German soccer team and fans to the World Cup in Qatar, one of the most controversial tournaments in history.
The aircraft has already taken off with players, coaches and staff from the coaching staff heading to Muscat, Oman, where the German team will meet before the start of the competition. “The aircraft assigned to the flight, an Airbus A330, sports a special slogan to send a clear message to the world: #DiversityWins!”, Lufthansa said in a statement.
Qatar’s treatment of migrant workers, women and the LGBTQ community has been in the spotlight as the Persian Gulf country hosts the tournament. Qatar has angrily rebuffed most of the attacks. Even local media on Sunday criticized the “arrogance” of some Western countries.
Groups of fans organized by various German clubs, including Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and Union Berlin, have often criticized in recent weeks the awarding of the World Cup to Qatar, and went as far as calling for a general boycott of part of the followers
Germany captain Philipp Lahm, the 2014 World Cup champion, said on Sunday that Qatar should never have been allowed to host the World Cup and vowed to stay out of the tournament. “Awarding the World Cup to Qatar was a mistake”, Lahm wrote in a column for the German newspaper Die Zeit. “It does not belong there (to Qatar)”, he continued. “Homosexuals are still criminalized, women do not have the same rights as men, and freedom of expression is restricted”, Lahm stressed.
