“I know what it’s like to be discriminated against. I was bullied because I had red hair,” said FIFA boss Gianni Infantino. How great must his privileges be to stoop so low in whitewashing Qatar?
Gianni Infantino’s main job is the head of the world football association Fifa. Before the opening of the 2022 World Cup, however, he acted like the propaganda minister of the Emirate of Qatar.
As is well known, as the organizer of the biggest football spectacle, the tries to give itself a modern touch, although the everyday life of the local women and the foreign workers is shaped more by medieval ideas.
The powerful, scandal-ridden football boss scored two brilliant own goals the day before the opening game. The first by claiming in all seriousness that Fifa and Qatar themselves had ensured that the working and living conditions of migrant workers had improved.
And the second, in which he made himself the advocate of all oppressed and disenfranchised people in the emirate: “I know what it’s like to be discriminated against. I was bullied because I had red hair.”
Infantino and his willing helpers in FIFA, which is tainted by corruption, seem to sense that many football fans all over the world have difficulties with the host country: the lack of a football tradition, the climatic conditions and, last but not least, the fact that human rights violations are part of the system there . (The fact that the same fans were indifferent to human rights at major sporting events in Russia and China is another matter.)
Infantino’s attempt to declare Fifa and the host country to be engines of social progress is downright ridiculous.
Until recently, he and the other top officials were completely indifferent to how many foreign workers died building the stadiums and hotels, or how they were exploited and oppressed.
Infantino himself recently spread the Qatari propaganda lie that only three workers were killed.
No, Fifa has done nothing to encourage civilized, more humane policies from its chosen host. It was pressure from national football associations as well as some Western governments that prompted Qatar to make some improvements.
Not out of insight, but to defuse the negative publicity about this World Cup. Although nobody knows whether the country will not completely return to the old practices after the last rally.
If you don’t even allow beer to be served to the extent that has been contractually agreed with Fifa, you shouldn’t rely on their “zeal for reform”.
The Fifa president values the emirate so much that he now lives there with his family, certainly in the same extravagant affluence as the ruling class.
This is the only way to explain the cynicism with which he declares himself a victim of discrimination and puts himself on a par with the rightsless migrants, some of whom are kept there like slaves.
Yes, when a child is bullied at school because of their looks, it hurts a lot. Because even children can be very cruel.
But to equate this with the suffering and suffering of physically, psychologically and sometimes also sexually exploited slave workers leaves one speechless. How great must Infantino’s privileges be to stoop so low in whitewashing Qatar?
The FIFA boss opened his whitewashing of Qatar with the following words: “Today I feel very strong feelings, today I feel like a Qatari, today I feel like an Arab, today I feel like an African. Today I feel homosexual. Today I feel disabled, today I feel like a migrant worker.” What embarrassing slander!
With his PR show for Qatar, this supreme representative of world football not only discredits himself, but the entire association. He will be re-elected for another term in March next year.
So far, the German Football Association has not seemed enthusiastic about this, but has not shown itself to be combative enough to support a serious opponent. When, if not now, should the DFB position itself clearly against a Fifa president who is simply intolerable?
Whatever Infantino’s future holds, one would certainly not wish him to have to live like a homosexual in Qatar.
