The director of David Beckham’s documentary has maintained that his perspectives on Qatar were considered “outdated” and were thus omitted from the series, despite his lucrative £125 million deal with the Middle Eastern nation.
The documentary, now available for streaming on Netflix, chronicles Beckham’s journey from his breakthrough at Manchester United to his superstardom at Real Madrid and the conclusion of his career at LA Galaxy. The show is primarily based on a series of candid interviews intertwined with archival footage.
However, intriguingly, the documentary doesn’t delve into discussions about the Qatar World Cup, for which Beckham served as an ambassador. This decision drew substantial criticism, particularly from the LGBT+ community, who believed that Beckham had turned his back on them.
Beckham notably became the first-ever Premier League star to grace the cover of Attitude, an LGBT+ magazine, but then took on an ambassadorial role for a country where reports suggest that LGBT+ individuals are subjected to persecution, arrest, and violence by security forces.
Beckham has generally refrained from addressing this criticism, and surprisingly, the documentary doesn’t touch upon the subject of Qatar. However, the director of the series has asserted that the World Cup topic was no longer pertinent.
“It just felt kind of dated. Honestly, if I had another episode, we could have gotten into that. But it just didn’t feel as relevant. When you’re talking about a guy’s 48 years, that was [just] a moment,” said Fisher Stevens in an interview with The Independent.
Beckham has discussed his affiliations with Qatar in other interviews, asserting that he had not received reports from LGBT+ individuals about problems in the country. He claimed to have conducted “extensive research” on the Middle Eastern state.
“I do a lot of research into partners that I’m going into business with. And I wanted to be involved in another World Cup. I like to see the game grow, and that means it going into territories it hasn’t been in before,” he stated in an interview with the Daily Telegraph.
“I knew there’d be questions, I knew there was going to be criticism, but I’ve always been a believer that football is such a powerful tool. I knew that once the World Cup started, not that it would go away, but it was all then about how people were treated, how people weren’t excluded, what an experience the World Cup would be.”
“I spent a month out there, and not one person came up to me and said, ‘Oh my God, I’ve been treated like this, oh my God, I wasn’t allowed into this place…’ I was around the LGBTQ community, I spoke to people on the ground. So I was happy with my decision.”
Despite Beckham’s statements, substantial evidence contradicts his claims, demonstrating Qatar’s oppressive treatment of LGBT+ individuals, even during the World Cup. Numerous individuals had their rainbow items confiscated, including Wales fans and the late journalist Grant Wahl.
In his home country, Beckham also faced backlash, with Attitude removing copies of the magazine featuring him from its offices. Comedian Joe Lycett even publicly disposed of £10,000 after Beckham failed to respond to his calls to address Qatar’s mistreatment of the LGBT+ community.