Rugby star Gareth Thomas slams ‘great corruption’ behind Qatar World Cup and says he find it difficult to understand Beckham’s backing for the event.

He told GB News’ Breakfast: “I felt when it was named, especially after the last World Cup being held in Russia…that with power comes great corruption, and I felt it was a very corrupt decision to hold it there.

“I would never go and support it because I feel like they want me to be respectful of their culture, but where’s their respect? They’ve opened up the gates to the world, where’s the respect to the culture of the world, of the diversity of the world, to our men and women?

“I’ve also thought that being a professional sports person myself, any major sporting event should and usually has some kind of legacy.”

Gareth, speaking in an interview during Breakfast with Rosie Wright and Andrew Pierce, added: “Now sadly, pre this event, everyone is always talking about the disgusting human rights in this country and their views against LGBT people.

“But nobody’s ever once said to them ‘what is the legacy of this event, what legacy do you expect to leave behind it’, because I can’t see a positive legacy coming from something that is going to be one of the most watched events globally.

“People say sports should have representation within society or society should have some kind of representation within sport. I can’t see a match on this.”

Asked if David Beckham should be a paid ambassador for the country, Gareth said: “I find it difficult to understand why somebody would promote it but not to address the other issue.

“Because I think the sad thing about this is there are always two issues here. It’s not just always about the sport, it’s about the sport and the legacy, about the sport and this controversy.

“If you address one issue, you have to be willing to address or make a stance on the other issue. It says a lot that nothing has been done on the other side of this issue.”

Gareth also talked about his work promoting awareness of HIV saying: “We campaign around the stigma around the virus, because we work closely with Terrence Higgins Trust and ViiV healthcare who are one of the leaders in the medicine and science around HIV.

“What I realised was that science and medicine has been so advanced that HIV is not a death sentence anymore. But the language used, sometimes the media coverage, the perception of people by so many – you wouldn’t think that that is the case.

“So, the stigma – over the next 20 years, HIV-related stigma, will kill 400,000 people, and that’s quite alarming.”

“How does it kill them? Well, people are refusing to go for tests because of the stigma around our people not wanting to be seen to be tested, people not wanting to take the medication, suicide – there’s so many different elements to stigma because of people’s misinformation, or people’s myths.”