Describing the stadium staff’s behaviour as “pretty heavy-handed”, McAllister told BBC Breakfast of her experience: “As we were queuing to go into the stadium we’d heard that there’d been issues with some people in front of us who’d been asked to take off their hats to go into the stadium.

“So, fortunately, a few of us further back in the queue knew what was likely to happen. And sure enough as we went through security we were told by some of the stewards that we couldn’t enter the stadium wearing our rainbow hats.”

Officials gathered around her and told McAllister, the deputy chair of UEFA’s women’s football committee, to remove her hat, which was made by the Welsh FA’s LGBTQ+ supporters group The Rainbow Wall, in accordance with “regulations”.

“We were told it was a regulation – clearly I work in football, I work with UEFA, so I know the regulations – so I asked which regulation it applied to and we weren’t told that,” she added.

“We need to speak for the LGBT people at home who don’t feel able to come to Doha because of the regime and its position on gay rights,” she continued. “We’re all horribly compromised by being here, so make no mistake: by being here we also need to make sure we don’t compromise on our values.”

Fifa will now allow rainbow hats and flags at World Cup stadiums in Qatar after backlash