According to Gary Neville, FIFA President Gianni Infantino is an inappropriate representative of world football. The British pundit was angered by the Italian’s lengthy and in many ways bizarre speech on Saturday, in which he defended Qatar as organizers of the World Cup and called his critics hypocrites.
“Today I feel like a Qatari. Today I feel like an Arab. Today I feel like a gay. Today I feel like a disabled person. Today I feel like a migrant worker,” Infantino declared with dramatic pauses.
“Of course I’m not Qatari, I’m not Arab, I’m not gay, but I feel this way because I know what it’s like to be discriminated against, to be bullied as a foreigner in a foreign country,” he said. he said, explaining that he faced bullying as a child because he grew up in Italy with freckles and red hair.
“What do you do in a case like this? You try to get involved, to find friends. You don’t start accusing, arguing, insulting,” the Italian official replied to Qatar’s criticism. And he went off guard. According to him, the Western world should be more ashamed.
“For what we have done in Europe for the last three thousand years, we should apologize for three thousand years before starting to give moral lessons,” he said.
Gary Neville admitted he was shocked by Infantino’s speech.
“His language, his jokes about the disabled and about migrants, was an absolute scandal. He shouldn’t have allowed himself to talk like that,” said Neville, who works as an expert for beIN Sports television in Qatar.
“Infantino is the awful face of football. What he said was really inappropriate,” said the former Manchester United player, calling for future improvements to the whole organisation’s image.
“I think FIFA is a poor representation of what football is all about, which is a beautiful game enjoyed by communities around the world. FIFA needs to fix itself,” he said.
According to him, world football needs independence and democracy. “It was very bad for a long time. Infantino got elected to office and is the worst face to represent the Middle East, Arabs, Muslims and the World Cup in Qatar.”
