World Cup fans can survive without beer, stresses FIFA President
Embattled FIFA President Gianni Infantino defended the World Cup in Qatar a day before the tournament began, accusing critics of the country’s human rights record of hypocrisy.
After months of concern over the country’s treatment of migrant workers, anger over its LGBTQ laws and doubts about the legitimacy of the decision to hold the tournament there, Infantino said it was wrong for Europe to lecture the Qataris.
“For what we Europeans have done in the last 3,000 years, we should apologize for the next 3,000 years before we start teaching people moral lessons,” he said on Saturday.
Infantino said there have been improvements in the treatment of migrant workers, partly due to commitments as a result of the World Cup. On the eve of one of the most criticized World Cups of all time, Infantino said his experience as the son of Italian migrants in Switzerland allowed him to understand what it meant to be bullied as a foreigner in a foreign country.
He began an almost hour-long speech by saying: “Today I feel like a Qatari. Today I feel Arabic. Today I feel African. Today I feel gay. Today I feel handicapped. Today I feel like a migrant worker.”
“I was bullied at school as a kid because I had red hair and freckles. Also, I was Italian, so imagine that,” Infantino said.
After a last-minute change in the rules governing alcohol sales at the event on Friday, there are fears other rules for the tournament could also be changed. Infantino tried to reassure the LGBTQ community that they were safe despite Qatar’s laws prohibiting homosexuality.
“Gay people are welcome in Qatar,” he said.
According to Infantino, the Qatar tournament presented many challenges, including the fact that so many stadiums are relatively close together. That’s a factor in the new rules for beer, he said, before shrugging off the ban.
“If this is the biggest problem we have for the World Cup, then I will step down immediately and go to the beach to relax,” Infantino said, adding that fans could go three hours without a beer.
The FIFA chief said the tournament will surpass revenue from the World Cup in Russia four years ago in terms of media rights, sponsorship and ticket sales, surpassing the previous record of $5.4 billion.
“When so many people invest in the World Cup and in Qatar, they invest because they believe in FIFA and they trust Qatar,” Infantino said.
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