Joe Lycett, comedian, has responded to reports that his previous performance in Qatar was in response to David Beckham’s criticism of him.

The stand-up had threatened destruction of PS10,000 of his own funds last month if former England footballer did not withdraw from his reported PS10m contract with the World Cup host. Homosexuality is against the law in England.

joked Wednesday that he was “caught out” after The Sun published a story claiming he had performed in Doha years ago.

In his 2016 autobiography, the comic previously mentioned his gigs in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Qatar.

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Lycett wrote “Oops! The Sun has caught me!

“I did two gigs at Doha in 2015, and kept it secret by writing about it and mentioning it multiple times in interviews, including the NY Times!

“If you are interested, I was paid a few hundreds quid (not Qatari but UK comedy promoters), but that was 2015 and that was a lot farther back.

“I think that if Shane Ritchie, a comedian from those days, had given me a few hundred pounds to convince me not to go to the show, it would have made all the difference. Who knows?

“I don’t have the perfect hindsight or spotless morality to, to choose a random example, The Sun newspaper.”

Piers Morgan tweeted Lycett: “(The problem) You decided to appoint yourselves the great outraged, halo-cladmoralist over Qatar Re Beckham & LGBT Rights but you were also paid to appear there.”

“It’s a little pathetic to blame the media for exposing hypocrisy.”

Lycett threatened to destroy PS10,000 but Beckham didn’t respond, prompting Lycett to stream the joker ripping the money live.

Later, he revealed that was a fake. He claimed that he donated the funds to LGBT+ charities.

This stunt raised concerns about hosting the World Cup in a country where same sex relationships can lead to seven years imprisonment.

Qatar’s laws and attitudes toward migrant workers, and LGBT+ communities have been criticised.