After initially suggesting Grant Wahl was killed while covering the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar last week, the soccer journalist’s brother posted Tuesday that he no longer suspects foul play.
The post came a day after Wahl’s body was returned to the United States and an autopsy was scheduled to take place.
Eric Wahl said the family would release a statement on a cause of death “soon,” but ruled out that he suffered a pulmonary embolism—another theory he’d mentioned previously.
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Some on social media accused Eric of racism for his initial assumption that Grant was murdered for exposing mistreatment of LGBTQ and migrant workers in Qatar, which Eric addressed in a tweet on Monday night.
“I apologize unequivocally,” he said. “But my initial statement stemmed from 2 things, neither of which related to racism: concerning things Grant told me, and well-known corruption.”
Josh Glancy, a correspondent for The Sunday Times, said he witnessed CPR being performed on Wahl “for many minutes” during the final moments of the Argentina vs. Netherlands match on Friday. He said he and other journalists in the press box were distressed by the lack of a defibrillator nearby, questioning how a “state-of-the-art” stadium could be unprepared for a medical emergency.
Grant Wahl was just 49 years old.
