The commercial for Visit Dubai was expensive for Brian Laudrup.
The Danish football legend has been expelled from TV2 and the newspaper Politiken.
“Don’t call me greedy and immoral, that’s overstepping,” he wrote to Jyllands-Posten.
In the commercial, Brian Laudrup praised the areas around Dubai and noted: “It’s hard to describe in words, it’s fantastic.”
However, the 53-year-old talks mostly about football, how he faced France in 1998 and what he thinks of Denmark’s chances of qualifying in Qatar, which begins in mid-November.
In Denmark, the feature was interpreted as an advertisement for the World Cup in Qatar – which did not fit well with the Danes. In addition, the two employers, TV2 and the newspaper Politiken, soon distanced themselves and decided to end their collaboration with Laudrup.
Politics has discontinued the Brian & Bolden podcast.
“The position in which he announces the World Cup in Qatar by visiting Dubai is largely inconsistent with the principles of critical review and independent journalism,” editor-in-chief Amalie Kistler said in a statement.
In written form, Brian Laudrup, who has played for Bayern Munich, Fiorentina, Milan and Chelsea among others and was captain of the men’s national team, has now chosen to speak about the situation that has arisen.
“You could say I became a face (for Dubai), but for me it was about football. Welcome to calling me naive and criticizing my judgment,” he wrote to Jyllands-Posten.
“But don’t call me greedy and immoral, that’s overstepping the mark.”