2022 World Cup: Fifa boss feels "migrant" and castigates "moral lessons"

Europe 1 with AFP 10:18 a.m., November 19, 2022

Fifa President Gianni Infantino said on Saturday that he felt "Arab", "gay", "migrant worker", strongly criticizing, on the eve of the kick-off of the World Cup-2022, the "moral lessons" of detractors of Qatar, which according to him are "hypocrisy".

In a press conference that began with a long, very theatrical monologue, the Italian-Swiss leader highlighted his Italian origins to ensure that he felt close to the migrants who came to work in Doha in conditions castigated by human rights organizations.

>> READ ALSO - 

Ten things to know about the 2022 World Cup in Qatar

“Today I feel Qatari, today I feel Arab, today I feel African, today I feel gay, today I feel disabled, today I feel migrant worker “, he recited in this introductory anaphora.

"It takes me back to my personal story, because I am the son of migrant workers," he said.

"I know what it means to be discriminated against, to be harassed, as a foreigner. As a child, I was discriminated against (in Switzerland) because I was red and I had freckles, I I was Italian, I spoke German badly."

Faced with the numerous criticisms of which Fifa has been the target because of the working conditions of the workers on the construction sites of the World Cup, Gianni Infantino affirmed that the international federation was one of the few to worry about their fate.

"Hypocrisy"

"Among the big companies that earn billions in Qatar, how many have settled the issue of the fate of migrant workers? None, because a change in legislation means less profit. But we have done it", a- he launched, before asking himself: "Why does no one recognize this progress?"

Qatar is regularly criticized by NGOs for its treatment of migrant workers, particularly in the construction, security and domestic work sectors, as well as LGBTQ+ people.

These accusations are vigorously rejected by the authorities, who point out that they have reformed their labor laws, and by the Qatari organizers of the Mondial, who assure that members of the LGBTQ+ community will be welcomed without discrimination, despite laws criminalizing sexual relations between people of the same sex in the country.

>> READ ALSO -

 2022 World Cup: no alcohol for supporters around stadiums

"These biased moral lessons are just hypocrisy," said Gianni Infantino, head of world football's supreme body since 2016 and the only candidate for his succession in 2023. "For all that we, Europeans, have done for 3,000 years, we should apologize for the next 3,000 years before we start lecturing people in morality," he added. 

On the rights of LGBTQ +, the leader assured that the Qatari authorities had given him the guarantee that "everyone" was "welcome" during the World Cup.

"If someone says the opposite, it's not the opinion of the country, and it's not the opinion of Fifa," he said.

The World Cup, which ends on December 18, begins on Sunday with the meeting between the host country and Ecuador.