On the eve of the biggest sporting event in the world, the president of the organization that runs it tried making the case that criticism is an unjust activity.
“This one-sided moral lesson is just hypocrisy,” FIFA president Gianni Infantino said in an opening statement before the 2022 World Cup was to kick off in Qatar on Sunday morning.
In an hour-long speech, Infantino did the exact opposite of what so many were hoping for: he minimized Qatar’s decade-long exploitation of migrant workers, an estimated 6,500 of them who died building seven brand new stadiums in extreme conditions, he diminished the fears of LGBTQ+ individuals whose mere existence is illegal in the host country and punishable of up to seven years in prison, he claimed to understand what it felt like to be marginalized and, perhaps worse of all, he admitted no wrongdoing by FIFA or Qatar while blaming the Western world for their own deficiencies.
