The United States has promised to fulfill the wishes of the family of a sports journalist, Grant Wahl who died recently when covering 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar by engaging with senior officials to know the cause of his death.
According to the reaction from the State Department Spokesman, Ned Price on Twitter on Saturday, as the country mourned the Journalist’s death while sending condolences to the deceased family.
He tweeted, “We were deeply saddened to learn of the death of Grant Wahl and send our condolences to his family, with whom we have been in close communication.
“We are engaged with senior Qatari officials to see to it that his family’s wishes are fulfilled as expeditiously as possible”, the State Department Spokesman said.
Report has it that the American journalist, Grant Wahl died of natural cause aged 48, on social media the post of his death started circulating after the Netherlands Argentina game.
His brother Eric, who is gay, posted on both Twitter and Instagram detailing the events and accusing foul play. Grant was a pillar of the soccer journalism community, having covered the sport for decades.
His World Cup coverage dates back to 1994. He came to prominence working for Sports Illustrated.
He left SI during the pandemic and had since been successful as an independent writer and podcaster. He covered the United Station National Team and MLS at a level few have matched.
It was reported that Grant Wahl went viral in the first few days of the World Cup, having been detained for wearing a rainbow flag shirt when he tried to enter a stadium to cover a match as press.
FIFA and Qatar officials had previously assured the public that LGBTQ symbolism would not be censored during the tournament.
Grant was at the front line of one of Qatar’s many heel turns during the past month. LGBTQ flags, clothing has been confiscated and tamped down.