Former Bahrain goalkeeper denies arrest

Manama : Humood Sultan, former Bahrain goalkeeper and well-known sports analyst, has denied rumours spread by Qatari officials that he was arrested by the security authorities for sympathising with Qatar.

Sultan himself appeared in a video message rubbishing the rumour spread by several Qatari officials and sports figures. A video of Sultan was in circulation commending on the Qatari people and praising their goodness and ethics. Sultan, who’s also known as Bu Hussam, said in the video that he would never make any negative comments about Qatar and its people.

Sultan, winner of the best Asian goalkeeper award in 1994, worked as a pundit for Qatari sports channel Al Kass for almost a decade, clarified in his video message that what’s being circulated is part of an old footage taken during his work at the channel. Sultan denied that he was arrested or detained and called upon the public to be beware of rumours and stop spreading them.

Interestingly, the gossip was not only promoted and circulated by Qatari officials, but also shared most among several persons who claim to be members of the Bahraini opposition.

They even alleged that Sultan was hospitalised due to the injuries he suffered from the “torture of Bahraini security authorities”. 

And, after the video appeared showing Sultan denying the rumours, many of them shared it claiming that the international goalie was released following the pressure created by their campaign online in support of Sultan.

Sultan’s matter has been on the top of the trending hashtags on Twitter in Bahrain in the past 48 hours.

Chief of Public Security Major General Tariq Al Hassan also tweeted, “The man is fine and at his house. Those who lie and fabricate the facts think that people will believe them if they continued their lies. This is an example of several fabrications they named the detainees of Bahrain.”