The FIFA president denounces the “double standards” and “hypocrisy” of Western countries for dumping all their evils on Qatar
“Today I feel Qatari, Arab, African, gay, disabled and a migrant worker.” With this declaration of intent, the FIFA president has begun his appearance before the media the day before the ball starts rolling in the World Cup. Through phrases loaded with criticism and not without reproach, but always in a calm tone, Gianni Infantino has dedicated an hour of his speech at the Doha Convention Center to denounce the “injustice” to which Qatar has been subjected. in recent months due to the limitation of rights and the treatment it gives to the workforce that comes from developing countries. And he has abounded in this argument to denounce the “double standards” and “hypocrisy” of the West for trying to give “lessons” to the authorities of this Persian Gulf State on matters in which their behavior has been unworthy or at least debatable. .
The intervention of the top leader of world football has not been wasted, who has assured with a certain irony that he does not read the newspapers – “otherwise I would be depressed” – but that he has shown that he is aware of current affairs in all its aspects. He has said that he is not a politician, that there are decisions that only governments can adopt, but he has behaved as such by being crystal clear in the messages that he wanted them to sink in and ambiguous and elusive on issues that, due to his position, he did not know. can pronounce with the same forcefulness. He has spoken, for example, of Western companies that pocket a fortune on Qatari soil and yet look with suspicion at the measures promoted by the authorities to improve the situation of their employees. “Of course, the same in his income statement they cannot afford to earn only 900 million, and not a thousand,” he slipped.
He has also been strict with organizations and citizens on the other side of the planet who endlessly criticize Qatar and FIFA “from the sofa” and who do not lift a finger to try to change things. That is the easy thing, he has come to say. The complicated thing, he added, is trying to get closer to different societies and trying to understand them in order to, always through “the use of conversation and dialogue”, undertake a transformation process that helps to improve them. Infantino is convinced that the Qatar of today has opted to start “opening the doors” in important issues that have stirred up the first world despite the fact that it has also cost it its own – “3,000 years in the case of Europe »– admit them culturally and socially. He was referring to the rights of women, of the homosexual community, to the implementation of universal education and healthcare, to work…
At this point he has appealed to his personal history, a son of migrants in Switzerland who had to “work very hard” to carve out a future for him. “I know what it is to be discriminated against in a country that is not yours. I was bullied at school because I was blond and freckled. He was also of Italian origin and spoke bad German. I saw what the workers who arrived at the border suffered to seek a better future. Also his country, he explained, had a hard time recognizing these situations and solving them and, to this day, “it is an example of integration.” He has used this reasoning to place in front of the mirror the European nations that tear their clothes in public when analyzing the situation in Qatar and yet “close their borders” to people fleeing a conflict or seeking in another nation what they need. they will never have theirs.
Infantino’s reflection has deliberately left many loose ends. He has not made any mention of the thousands of workers who, according to different international organizations, have lost their lives in the construction of the stadiums for the World Cup. He has only pointed out that Qatari law protects and indemnifies those who suffer an accident. He has also tiptoed over legislation that sentences gays to up to seven years in prison. “All people are welcome in Qatar regardless of their religion, race and sexual orientation,” he proclaimed. By then, social networks were bustling. He reproached him for coming out as gay in public because he knows that if he isn’t, he won’t be arrested. He has been asked about it and has thrown balls out. “Now is the time for us to talk about football, about this World Cup, because football brings people together.”
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