Qatar World Cup ambassador says homosexuality is 'damage in the mind'

Former Qatari national football player Khalid Salman made the comments on German TV. 

COUNTDOWN: The Khalifa International Stadium in Doha, Qatar. Qatar has built eight stadiums for this World Cup and created an entire new city of Lusail where the final will be held. Picture: AP Photo/Hussein Sayed

An ambassador for the World Cup in Qatar has described homosexuality as a “damage in the mind” in an interview with German public broadcaster ZDF just two weeks before the opening of the global soccer tournament in the Gulf state.

Former Qatari national soccer player Khalid Salman told a German reporter in an interview that being gay is “haram,” or forbidden in Arabic, and that he has a problem with children seeing gay people.