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Notes -
A prominent American Soccer journalist, Grant Wahl, passed away during this afternoon's World Cup game.
He's been critical of the Qatari government, for their treatment of the migrant workers who helped build the stadiums on his website, and for
protesting with a rainbow shirt.
Grant commented he had been dealing with symptoms diagnosed as Bronchitis and a translated report from the game suggests he collapsed while at the stadium and hit his head. I will step in here without sources and state third hand I've heard a pretty nasty flu/bronchitis illness has passed around the WC area in Qatar, which is being hosted in a much smaller, more connected base than is typical for this type of event. You can probably find news reports of a few teams dealing with the flu.
His brother has already suggested foul play, and if that isn't enough conspiracy for you, his wife is on the COVID Task Force for Joe Biden. This is likely to cross Biden's desk and receive attention quickly. Could develop into a major international incident.
I remember that guy from his super-viral gay flag shirt tweet. It does seem suspicious but it's not unheard of for people to die mysteriously and seemingly suddenly from flu-like symptoms. Another example is David Graeber.
Prior to going independent, he was one of the first and best journalists covering US Soccer. He was fired from Sports Illustrated during COVID after criticizing cuts during the pandemic (SI had already been carved out a few years earlier IIRC, and this was likely more of an excuse to accelerate cuts than anything else).
I believe his last notably good piece of journalism was a telling of his excursion to Transnistria to cover an underdog team in the Champions League - think one of those motley crew underdogs in the NCAA Basketball Tournament - although there were some odd spots in there that made you wonder about his presence there as an independent journalist with no corporate backing.
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