Fifa president Gianni Infantino at World Cup: ‘Today I feel gay, I feel disabled, I feel a migrant worker’
Fifa president Gianni Infantino claimed “today I feel gay” as he scolded western media for giving “moral lessons” over the controversial Qatar World Cup.
Qatar has exploited untold thousands of migrant workers, mostly lured from impoverished parts of south Asia, to build the stadiums and infrastructure to host the World Cup. Among a slew of human rights abuses, several thousand labourer deaths during the past decade remain unexplained and the Emirate state has shown little urgency over the issue.
In addition, Qatar’s suitability to host the tournament has been questioned because the conservative Islamic nation outlaws homosexuality between men, and LGBTQ+ fan groups have warned they would not feel safe in the country.
Ahead of the opening game of the tournament on Sunday, Infantino – who this week was reelected as president of football’s governing body unopposed – made an extraordinary attack on those criticisms, doubling down on Fifa’s choice of Qatar as World Cup hosts.
Infantino said: “We have told many, many lessons from some Europeans, from the western world. I think for what we Europeans have been doing the last 3,000 years we should be apologising for next 3,000 years before starting to give moral lessons to people.”
He added: “Today I feel Qatari. Today I feel Arabic. Today I feel African. Today I feel gay. Today I feel disabled. Today I feel (like) a migrant worker.
“Of course I am not Qatari, I am not an Arab, I am not African, I am not gay, I am not disabled. But I feel like it, because I know what it means to be discriminated, to be bullied, as a foreigner in a foreign country. As a child I was bullied – because I had red hair and freckles, plus I was Italian so imagine.
“What do you do then? You try to engage, make friends. Don’t start accusing, fighting, insulting, you start engaging. And this is what we should be doing.”
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