In a bizarre news conference the day before the World Cup is set to begin in Qatar, FIFA President Gianni Infantino dismissed concerns about Qatar’s human rights record, compared himself to marginalized people and took aim at critics of the country’s hosting of the tournament.
“Today I feel Qatari. Today I feel Arab. Today I feel African. Today I feel gay. Today I feel disabled. Today I feel [like] a migrant worker,” Infantino told journalists in Doha.
In wide-ranging remarks, he appeared to cast questions about the treatment of migrant workers and discrimination against LGBTQ people as attempts to sow division in the world and to portray people concerned about those alleged human rights violations as wanting “to spit on others.”
At the same time, he pledged that FIFA would defend human rights and require Qatar to welcome all people to the World Cup, which runs until Dec. 18. Qatar is the first Arab country to host a World Cup.
A FIFA spokesperson said the organization had no additional comment.
Since FIFA awarded the tournament to Qatar in 2010, criticism and protests from human rights advocates, players, workers and others have been steady. The sheikhdom has a large number of migrant workers, criminalizes homosexuality and restricts the rights of women.
Human rights organizations including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have estimated that the death toll of migrant workers building World Cup facilities is in the thousands, a number Qatar has disputed. Many of the workers are from South Asian and African countries. Meanwhile, fears about the safety of LGBTQ fans attending the tournament have mounted.
Qatari authorities have disputed some of the criticism.
In an Oct. 25 address, the country’s emir, Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, said Qatar “has been subjected to an unprecedented campaign that no host country has ever faced,” the Associated Press reported. He said claims against the country include “fabrications and double standards.”
On Saturday, Infantino accused Europeans who have criticized Qatar and FIFA’s decision to hold the World Cup there of hypocrisy.
“For what we Europeans have been doing in the last 3,000 years around the world we should be apologizing for [the] next 3,000 years before starting to give moral lessons,” Infantino said.
He also said he was not defending Qatar but was “defending football.”
“You can crucify me. I’m here for that. Don’t criticize Qatar, don’t criticize the players,” he said. “Criticize FIFA, criticize me if you want because I’m responsible for everything, but let the people enjoy this World Cup.”
‘Very welcoming’
Some fans have said they plan to boycott the games, especially those in the LGBTQ community, because of Qatar’s laws on homosexuality. In May, Tamim said all would be welcome at the World Cup and said the country would not stop anybody from coming.
“Qatar is a very welcoming country,” he said when asked about LGBTQ guests at a news conference. “We welcome everybody, but also we expect and we want people to respect our culture.”
Infantino on Saturday said he had confirmed with Qatar’s leaders that all fans would be welcome, regardless of religion, race or sexual orientation.
“This was our requirement, and the Qatari state sticks to that requirement,” he said. “Do you want to stay home and hammer and criticize and say how bad they are, these Arabs or these Muslims or whatever, because it’s not allowed to be publicly gay?”
He also addressed the ban on alcohol sales at World Cup stadiums, an eleventh-hour change announced Friday, saying the decision was made jointly between Qatar — a country that strictly limits alcohol sale and consumption in public places — and FIFA.
“Honestly, if this is the biggest issue we have for the World Cup, I will resign immediately and go to the beach and relax,” he said.
‘Absolutely astounding’
Human rights advocates swiftly criticized Infantino’s remarks.
“Demands for equality, dignity and compensation cannot be treated as some sort of culture war — they are universal human rights that FIFA has committed to respect in its own statutes,” Steve Cockburn, Amnesty International’s head of economic and social justice, said in a statement.
Cockburn said FIFA should use a significant part of its profits from the World Cup to compensate migrant workers and their families if the organization “is to salvage anything from this tournament.”
Criticism came from elsewhere as well.
“You do not know what it feels like to be gay, Infantino, you do not know what it feels like to be African, and you cannot conflate being discriminated against because of red hair and freckles to what any of the groups you’ve just referenced have experienced,” Sky Sports reporter Melissa Reddy said in a broadcast from Qatar posted to Twitter.
“I do not think Infantino is the right man to speak about hypocrisy. I do not think ‘whataboutism’ is the correct route for a FIFA president to try and enforce change,” Reddy said. “If we all get stuck on what’s happened before or what’s going on elsewhere and we have to stay silent because of that, we will never bring about any effective change.”
As host, Qatar will kick off the event, playing against Ecuador in Sunday’s only game at 11 a.m. Eastern time.
