Sporting officials in Egypt and Iran, two countries where homosexuality is severely punished, protested after being drawn to play the “Pride Match” in Seattle during next year’s World Cup.
Seattle’s plan to designate the June 26 game as a “Pride Match” — as it coincides with the city’s Pride weekend — was made before last week’s World Cup draw at the Kennedy Center, which sorted the teams playing in the World Cup into 12 groups of four. Egypt and Iran were drawn Friday to be in Group G, and FIFA allocated the timings and locations of games Saturday.
