Infantino
FIFA president Gianni Infantino has accused Europeans of hypocrisy over the issue of migrant workers who died building stadiums and infrastructure for the World Cup in Qatar.
According to Amnesty International, around 6,500 people died during the preparations for the competition.
For the FIFA president, the “old continent” has had a glass ceiling throughout its history and has done nothing to improve the situation of these migrants.
“Taking into account what we Europeans have done in the last three thousand years, we should apologize for the next three thousand years before starting to give moral lessons. If Europe really wanted to know about these young people, it would do like Qatar: it would create legal channels, by hosting a percentage of these workers. This means that we must not point the finger at what does not work. These moral lessons are in a sense just hypocrisy,” said the leader of football’s highest body this Saturday in his speech by World Cup opening acceptance.
Also in the speech, Infantino made sure he understood what many of those affected by the Qatari regime were feeling.
“Today I feel Qatari; today I feel Arab; today I feel African; today I am gay; today I am disabled; today I am a migrant worker. Of course I am not Qatari, Arab, African, gay or disabled. But I feel such, because I know what it is like to be discriminated against, as a foreigner in a different country. As a child, in school, what did I do? I would look at the floor and go to my room to cry. Then I “I tried to build relationships and make friends. This is what we should do. As a child I was discriminated against (in Switzerland) because I had red hair and freckles, I was Italian and I didn’t speak German well,” she added..
Finally, he said this was not a defense of Qatar. “I don’t have to defend Qatar, they know how to defend themselves. I’m here to defend football and injustice,” she concluded.
