FIFA President Gianni Infantino has praised the progress of the World Cup in Qatar so far.

"I saw all the games, and to put it simply and clearly, this was the best group stage of a World Cup that has ever existed," said the Swiss in a video distributed by the World Football Association on Wednesday.

"The games in the beautiful stadiums were very, very high quality, that was already clear.

And the audience at the games was incredible.” Infantino spoke of an average attendance of over 51,000.

Spectator interest will be discussed during the finals.

In particular, fans of the Latin American and Arab teams created a World Cup atmosphere in the arenas.

However, many seats in the stadiums often remained empty until shortly before kick-off.

When the hosts lost their opening match against Ecuador, numerous spectators had already left the stadium in the second half.

European fans – including those from Germany – were clearly outnumbered in Qatar.

According to Infantino (52), "more than two billion viewers" have already watched the World Cup games on TV.

In Germany, the odds had dropped significantly compared to previous tournaments.

"It's really incredible: two and a half million people on the streets of Doha and several hundred thousand every day in the stadiums all celebrating, cheering, cheering for their teams, fantastic atmosphere, great goals and unbelievable excitement," Infantino said.

World Cup host Qatar is seen very critically because of human rights violations, especially in Europe.

A compensation fund for migrant workers in Qatar was one of the big issues before the World Cup.

But since the ball has been rolling, discussions have almost come to a standstill.

Schenk criticizes alleged opposition

Human rights lawyer Sylvia Schenk, meanwhile, has criticized the alleged opposition to Infantino.

"It's silly to think that not proposing a candidate is opposition," the 70-year-old told the "Frankfurter Rundschau".

Anyone who defines themselves as an opposition “first nominates an opposing candidate and secondly develops a substantive concept”.

At the World Cup, the European nations who were banned from wearing the "One Love" captain's armband criticized the world association.

Also the German Football Association (DFB).

Its President Bernd Neuendorf had declared that he did not want to support Infantino in the presidential election in March for the time being.

But nobody is going to play against the Swiss, according to Neuendorf that would have had too little chance of success.

With an opposing candidate, "an international election campaign could have been carried out for three months and the content of the persuasion work could have been carried out," said Schenk.

Even if Infantino were re-elected, "a sign would have been set for the next election".

Instead, “nobody had a concept”.