The death of a third journalist at the World Cup in Qatar was announced on Monday. He is Roger Pearce, technical director of ITV Sport. His death was said to have occurred on November 21 and was announced on ITV’s own broadcast ahead of the Wales-USA match.

“We have very sad news to bring you from here in Qatar,” said presenter Mark Pougatch. “Our technical director, Roger Pearce, who was here for his eighth World Cup, sadly passed away. Roger was a highly respected figure in the sports broadcasting industry, for ITV he was instrumental in the logistical planning and coverage of the Rugby World Cup, Football World Cup and European Championships,” said the presenter. “He always had a smile on his face and left a smile on your face,” he said, calling Pearce “professional and extremely popular.”

Pearce, 65, began his career as an engineer at Grampian TV and worked on other ITV channels such as TVS and Meridian, before joining the ITV sports channel full-time in 2001 and becoming its technical director in 2008. As explained by Neil Stainsby, BBC Journalist and friend of Pearce, the ITV technical director was due to retire in five weeks.

The second earlier announced death was that of a Qatari photojournalist covering the World Cup identified as Khalid al-Misslam.

English-language Qatari news service Gulf News reported on Saturday the death of Khalid al-Misslam, citing the Qatari TV news outlet he worked for, Al Kass TV.

Few details, such as when and how al-Misslam died, have been released, and Qatar’s Ministry of Health was unavailable for comment when contacted at time of publication.

According to Gulf News, al-Misslam died “suddenly while covering the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.”

“We believe in Allah’s mercy and forgiveness for him, and send our deepest condolences to his family,” the outlet added.

The news of his death followed that of Wahl, confirmed by the US Soccer Federation on Friday. Wahl’s brother, Eric Wahl, said he died en route to the hospital after collapsing as he covered Friday’s match between the Netherlands and Argentina.

The exact cause of Wahl’s death has not been confirmed. On December 6 he wrote on his blog that he had been diagnosed with probable bronchitis after a period of intense work. (Pieced together from reports by Marca and Business Insider)

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