A few weeks after the declarations of the president of the French Football Federation, Noël Le Graët, who said he was "very happy" to go and play the World Cup in Qatar and who had praised the "enormous progress at the social level" of the emirate in recent years, it is the turn of Gianni Infantino to express himself (in his own way) on the question of the working conditions of workers on construction sites linked to the World Cup.

And, as usual, this one didn't do things by halves.

Asked on Sunday during a conference at the Milken Institute in Los Angeles about the possibility that Fifa would use part of its profits to help the families of workers who died on the construction sites of the World Cup, Gianni Infantino thus preferred to dodge and leave in a humanist discourse that is doubtful to say the least.

“Let's not forget one thing…when we talk about this subject, which is work, hard work even, my parents immigrated from Italy to Switzerland.

It's not that far, but still.

[…] When you give someone a job, even in difficult conditions, you give them dignity and pride.

It's not charity.

You are not doing charity.

You don't give someone something and say, 'Stay where you are.

I give you something and I feel good,'” said the Swiss in remarks – not always very clear – reported by the AP news agency.

Infantino praises FIFA's role in Qatar

Relaunched by an MSNBC journalist about the Guardian investigation which, in February 2021, estimated the number of workers who died on construction sites linked to the World Cup at around 6,500, Infantino replied that only three deaths had been officially recorded on these sites.

Worse, he did not hesitate to say that if “6,000 people died on other construction sites (…), Fifa is not there to be the police of the world or is not responsible for all that it is happening in the world.

" According to him, we should even thank the body because, " thanks to Fifa, thanks to football, we were able to address the status of these 1.5 million workers working in Qatar.

“Words fail us.

As a reminder, while Qatar has implemented reforms, by abolishing the sponsorship system making employees quasi-properties of their employer and establishing a minimum hourly wage, the working conditions of security guards in Qatar, "including in projects related to the 2022 Football World Cup", are comparable to "forced labor" according to a latest report by the NGO Amnesty International published in early April.

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  • Soccer

  • World Cup 2022

  • Gianni Infantino

  • Fifa

  • Qatar

  • Sport

  • Labor law