FIFA executive likens U.S. anti-LGBTQ laws to Qatar ahead of World Cup
Jill Ellis won the Women’s World Cup twice as a coach. Now FIFA’s Chief Football Officer, she defends Qatar as a possible host. The post FIFA executive likens U.S. anti-LGBTQ laws to Qatar ahead of World Cup appeared first on Outsports.
Mark
With this summer’s FIFA World Cup bringing more nations together than ever before, there is no escaping the politics, particularly when it comes to LGBTQ rights.
For once, a senior FIFA figure has tried to tackle a question on the thorniest of topics. Jill Ellis, who is Chief Football Officer at world soccer’s governing body, says the sweep of “anti-gay legislation” across the U.S. should give the main host nation for the 2026 World Cup pause for thought.
“I’m very, very careful not to throw stones in glass houses,” said Ellis at an event in London, where she is helping to promote the new FIFA Women’s Champions Cup.
Her intervention comes at a time when talk of human rights and LGBTQ safety at this most mega of mega-sports events is escalating.
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Ellis, who was born in England and moved to the U.S. as a teenager, coached the USWNT to victory at the 2015 and 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
She married her wife Betsy in 2013, and last year she was again named on Outsports’ Power 100 list of the most influential LGBTQ people in sports.
The Women’s Champions Cup is a six-team club tournament between the reigning champions of the six continental confederations. In two years, FIFA plans to launch an even-bigger event — the Women’s Club World Cup — which, due to a play-in competition, will comprise 19 teams.
A leading contender to host that 2028 tournament is Qatar, where homosexuality is still criminalized and where some fans and members of the media had rainbow-colored items confiscated during the 2022 men’s World Cup.
With the women’s game involving so many LGBTQ people (at least a fifth of all players at last summer’s UEFA Women’s Euro tournament were publicly out), Ellis was asked if FIFA would seriously consider Qatar as a host within that context.
“Certainly,” replied Ellis, before adding a proviso. “I’m going to put my personal hat on.”
In comments first reported by the Times of London and the Telegraph, she said: “There are over 500 bills in the US with anti-gay legislation on them. That was last year when I started researching. I say that because I also think more broadly, we all have to look at how we can continue to create different perceptions.
“I think sport is a powerful conduit to do that. That’s just me putting my [personal] thing on. I will assure you that, but I also come from the U.S. Right now, there’s a big light being shone on that.”
After citing the proverb of glass houses and stones, she added: “We certainly will look at all of the bidding that comes in.
“Sport has an incredible ability to transform, educate, and enlighten. I think the more people that can have access to this incredible game and see women play it, it’s for the betterment of everybody. That’s my personal opinion.”
The “big light” Ellis refers to is the focus on the forthcoming men’s FIFA World Cup, while there is additional context to her mention of more than 500 anti-gay bills being introduced last year.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) tracked 616 anti-LGBTQ bills in 2025, with the majority of them primarily targeting trans people. However, bills such as those proposing religious exemptions on nondiscrimination, restrictions on inclusive education, and the flying of LGBTQ Pride flags on public buildings impact on the broader community.
States that passed anti-LGBTQ bills last year included Georgia and Texas, where FIFA World Cup matches will be played. So far in 2026, the ACLU is tracking 345 such bills.
England’s LGBTQ fans group says World Cup in U.S. is ‘unsafe’
After the controversies of Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022, there was an expectation that 2026 in the U.S., Canada and Mexico would be a calmer affair, with fewer concerns around discrimination.
FIFA continues to sell the World Cup this way, opening a recent announcement about a new deal with TikTok with the line: “The most inclusive event in football history has today become even more accessible.”
However, decisions made by FIFA like dynamic pricing for tickets and disabled access are having real-world consequences for fans, alongside issues such as the threat of visa refusals based on social media activity.
Three Lions Pride, the official LGBTQ supporters’ group for the England national team, recently announced it will not have a visible presence at the World Cup because its hopes for an inclusive tournament have been “well and truly shattered.”
The group has around 350 members, many of whom attend matches home and away, and told Outsports it had previously anticipated that around 10% would have traveled to the U.S.
Three Lions Pride says it has serious concerns over fan safety, particularly for trans and gender-non-conforming supporters. They pointed to the “proliferation of anti-gay bills” and a general atmosphere of hostility in certain host regions.
“This is unsafe and unacceptable,” the group stated, adding that they cannot guarantee the security of their members in an organized, visible capacity.
The group’s co-founders, Joe White and Di Cunningham, went to Russia to follow their team in 2018, at a time when anti-LGBTQ laws were not as advanced in the country as they are now. The host nation’s government opted to welcome the world, for a month at least.
Understandably, Three Lions Pride then skipped Qatar 2022 due to safety concerns. Now the group feels it must skip the U.S. for similar reasons.
Officially, FIFA hasn’t been engaging on questions of LGBTQ inclusion. Multiple media organizations, including Outsports, reached out for comment when the allocation of fixtures to venues following the draw sent Egypt and Iran to Seattle, on the previously announced “Pride Match” weekend.
Both national football associations say they have lodged complaints, but FIFA has not yet spoken publicly on the matter.
It promised to stage a tournament that celebrates diversity, but with fans voting with their feet and one of their own senior executives now admitting the host nation has a “glass house” problem, it feels like the marketing gloss is well and truly peeling off.
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