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BTS star Jungkook is to perform at the World Cup in Qatar.
The decision to host the football tournament in the Gulf state has caused deep controversy due to Qatar's stance on homosexuality – which is illegal in the country – but the 25-year-old K-Pop singer will be amongst the names who take to the stage during the football tournament.
A tweet from the boyband's official account read: “Proud to announce that Jungkook is part of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Soundtrack will perform at the World Cup opening ceremony. Stay tuned!”
The ‘Butter' hitmaker will join the likes of former Take That star Robbie Williams as well as Craig David and Tinie Tempah when the tournament kicks off later this month but pop singer Dua Lipa recently slammed rumours that she would be taking to the stage and vowed never to visit the country until “all human rights” are granted.
She said: “There is currently a lot of speculation that I will be performing at the opening ceremony of the world cup in Qatar. I will not be performing and nor have I ever been involved in any negotiation to perform. will be cheering England on from afar and I look forward to visiting Qatar when it has fulfilled all the human rights pledges it made when it won the right to host the World Cup.”
FIFA has issued a plea to the 32 competing nations to “let football take the stage” at the tournament in Qatar but England manager Gareth Southgate said it is “highly unlikely” that the team will adhere to the governing body's request.
He said: “We have always spoken about issues we think should be talked about, particularly the ones we feel we can affect. Contrary to one or two observations in the last few weeks, we have spoken in the same way other nations have spoken about this tournament, the human rights challenges. We've been very clear on our standpoint on that. So, look I think we would like to focus primarily on the football. For every player, every coach and everybody travelling to a World Cup, this is a carnival of football. So regarding the LGBT community, we stand for inclusivity and we are very, very strong on that. We think that is important in terms of all our supporters. We understand the challenges this tournament brings within that, If it wasn't for the strength of that community, we wouldn't be women's European champions. So it's very, very important to us.”
