During the World Cup match between Portugal and Uruguay, a protester with a rainbow flag runs onto the pitch, but the moment is barely shown on TV

A protester took to the pitch during the World Cup match between Portugal and Uruguay today, but you might not know it unless you were on the pitch yourself. The television picture of the moment, which came in the 51st minute of the match, was almost non-existent as the protester ran through the bottom left corner of the screen in a split second and the referee bent over raising the rainbow flag. he held on. would have behave.

The man, news photos show, was wearing a Pride flag and a shirt with the Superman logo and the words “Save Ukraine” on the front and “Respect Iranian Woman” on the back. He was eventually attacked by security forces and taken away to public brotherhoods.

Any reference to the ongoing World Cup protests in Iran was a sensitive issue for that country’s leadership, which reportedly went so far as to threaten its own players and their families if Team Iran misbehaved in tomorrow’s game against the United States.

Qatar’s track record on gender and LGBT+ equality is also in the spotlight. Robbie de Santos, Stonewall’s Director of Communications and External Affairs, told Deadline ahead of the tournament: “LGBTQ+ people in Qatar are criminalized and persecuted simply because they exist and cannot compromise who they are. It is imperative that those of us with influence, including broadcasters, make clear that we expect the Qatari authorities to respect and enforce freedom of association and expression and the rights of all, including LGBTQ+ people. ”

David Neal, executive producer of Fox Sports’ US coverage, said before the tournament that the channel’s coverage would focus on the sport and not the issues surrounding it. “Our position is that if it has an impact on what happens on the field, we will cover it completely,” he said. “But if not, then it’s a side effect of tournament history. There are many other institutions and outlets that will cover this. We really believe that viewers come to us to see what happens on the field, on the field.”

The game was actually canceled because of the protester. And while Fox has little control over the video feed provided by FIFA, there didn’t seem to be much on-air discussion about the network’s moment with John Strong and Stu Holden.

Strong commented succinctly, “The game is stopped here [unintelligible] someone who got on the field “but without the benefit of a close-up feed might have struggled to see exactly what was going on.”

Deadline has been in contact with FIFA and will update any comments received.

After the match, Portugal’s Ruben Neves told ESPN: “We know what happened around this World Cup. It is normal for this to happen. Of course we are all there too. Iran too because I saw his shirt. I hope nothing happens to the boy, because we get his message and I think the whole world does too.”