Second Reporter Dies While Covering FIFA World Cup in Qatar

Lusail Stadium at sunrise in Doha, Qatar, on June 20, 2022. Drone photo/David Ramos/Getty Images

A Qatari reporter has suddenly died while covering the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, according to local media.

The Gulf Times newspaper reported on Dec. 10 that journalist Khalid al-Misslam, who was working as a photographer for Al Kass TV, “died suddenly while covering the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.”

The TV channel mentioned his death briefly on a live broadcast, according to multiple reports. Details of how he died remain unclear.

News of al-Misslam’s death comes on the same day it was revealed that a security guard was seriously injured after he fell at the Lusail Iconic Stadium on Dec. 10 around 2 a.m.

The Guardian reported, citing a soccer fan, that the guard fell from the top outside concourse onto the ground below. The guard, who is believed to be a migrant worker, was transported via ambulance to Hamad Medical Hospital where he was in a stable but critical condition as of Dec. 11.

American Journalist Collapses in Stadium

Al-Misslam’s death marks the second journalist death while covering the FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

The first instance, which took place a day prior at Lusail Iconic Stadium, involved American soccer journalist Grant Wahl.

According to reports, Walh had collapsed in his seat during extra time in the quarter-final match between Argentina and the Netherlands late on Dec. 9. He was covering the game at the time.

His agent, Tim Scanlan, said that Wahl suffered “some kind of acute distress” while covering Argentina’s quarter-final win over the Netherlands. Wahl was transported to a local hospital and later died.

“Everyone’s emotional, and it’s really traumatic,” Scanlan told Reuters. “He was a true advocate for both the men’s and women’s games, and really just cared deeply about the sport.”

Cold Turns Worse

Prior to his death, he shared on his Substack website that he had visited a medical clinic in Qatar, where he was given “a course of antibiotics and some heavy-duty cough syrup.”

“My body finally broke down on me. Three weeks of little sleep, high stress, and lots of work can do that to you,” Wahl stated. “What had been a cold over the last 10 days turned into something more severe on the night of the USA-Netherlands game, and I could feel my upper chest take on a new level of pressure and discomfort.”

“I didn’t have COVID (I test regularly here), but I went into the medical clinic at the main media center today, and they said I probably have bronchitis,” he added.

Rafael Cores, a journalist for Univision, shared that Wahl was working on his laptop before he collapsed.

“I’m in shock. I was sitting next to him tonight. He was working on his story on his laptop, it was about 4 minutes before the end of the extra time. He was laughing at a joke we saw on Twitter only minutes earlier. I can’t believe it,” he shared on Twitter.

Defibrillator Never Came

Josh Glancy, a correspondent for the Sunday Times, who was also sitting next to Wahl, noted that a defibrillator was not available to emergency workers at the stadium when Wahl collapsed.

“At this billion dollar state-of-the-art stadium, which has a VIP suite so lavish it includes a bedroom, which will host the World Cup final, why was there no defibrillator to hand?” he wrote. “Many minutes passed and we kept expecting it to come. But it never did.”

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Eric Wahl, Grant Wahl’s brother, noted on Twitter on Dec. 12 that “per a U.S. gov official, FIFA is saying [automated external defibrillators] AEDs were available at the stadium.”

It is not clear why emergency workers did not have a defibrillator at hand when Wahl collapsed.

Eric Wahl has urged people not to circulate the belief that his brother died due to an adverse consequence of a COVID-19 vaccine, calling the claim “absolute nonsense.”

Wahl’s cause of death remains unconfirmed.