Gianni Infantino, President of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), has described the West’s reporting about the human rights record in Qatar, the FIFA World Cup 2022 host nation, as “hypocrisy” on the eve of the tournament.
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| President of FIFA, Gianni Infantino |
At a news conference in Doha, Infantino bared his mind in an exceptional monologue, for almost one hour, and went ahead to intensely defend Qatar and the tournament.
Several issues including treatment of LGBT people and deaths of migrant workers have overshadowed the event in Qatar.
Infantino expects that countries in Europe should apologize for acts committed in their own histories, rather than placing so much focus on the issues of migrant workers in Qatar.
Hosts nation, Qatar, will lock horns with Ecuador, in the first match of the tournament on Sunday at Al Bayt Stadium, 16:00 GMT.
According to BBC:
In February 2021, the Guardian said 6,500 migrant workers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka had died in Qatar since it won its World Cup bid.
The number is based on figures provided by the countries’ embassies in Qatar.
However, the Qatar government said the total was misleading, because not all the deaths recorded were of people working on World Cup-related projects.
The government said its accident records showed there were 37 deaths among labourers at World Cup stadium construction sites between 2014 and 2020, only three of which were “work-related”.
However, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) says this is an underestimate.
FIFA President, Gianni Infantino, said: “We have been taught many lessons from Europeans and the Western world. I am European. For what we have been doing for 3,000 years around the world, we should be apologising for the next 3,000 years before giving moral lessons.
“If Europe really care about the destiny of these people, they can create legal channels – like Qatar did – where a number of these workers can come to Europe to work. Give them some future, some hope.
“I have difficulties understanding the criticism. We have to invest in helping these people, in education and to give them a better future and more hope. We should all educate ourselves, many things are not perfect but reform and change takes time.
“This one-sided moral lesson is just hypocrisy. I wonder why no-one recognises the progress made here since 2016.
“It is not easy to take the critics of a decision that was made 12 years ago. Qatar is ready, it will be the best World Cup ever.
“I don’t have to defend Qatar, they can defend themselves. I defend football. Qatar has made progress and I feel many other things as well.
“Of course I am not Qatari, Arab, African, gay, disabled or a migrant worker. But I feel like them because I know what it means to be discriminated and bullied as a foreigner in a foreign country.”
