After a press conference by Gianni Infantino, president of FIFA, this Saturday (19), the director of media relations at the organization, Bryan Swanson, asked for the floor to defend the representative of criticism over the choice of Qatar as host of the World Cup .
“I’ve seen a lot of criticism of Infantino since I arrived at FIFA, especially from the LGBTQIA+ community. I’m here in Qatar as a gay man, and we’ve been given assurances that everyone will be welcome at this World Cup. And I believe they will be,” he said. .
Swanson also said that just because Infantino isn’t gay doesn’t mean he doesn’t care about LGBTQIA+ rights. And he assured that the agenda is dear to the president of FIFA.
During the interview, Infantino said he feels “Qatari, Arab, African, gay, disabled and a migrant worker”. The speech was an attempt to signal positively to minorities in the midst of controversy and criticism because of the choice of Qatar as host of the World Cup.
He also said the criticism was the fruit of Western hypocrisy. “I’m European. We should be apologizing for the next 3,000 years for what we’ve done in the last 3,000 before lecturing,” he said.
“If Europe really cares about the fate of these people [trabalhadores migrantes]should create legal means, as Qatar did, to take them to work in Europe and give them a future and hope”, he continued.
Also on Saturday, Hassan Al Thawadi, head of the Supreme Committee for the Delivery and Legacy of the World Cup, said that criticism of Qatar as host of the World Cup was based on racist views of the country.
Qatar is criticized for its treatment of migrant workers — many of whom built the World Cup stadiums and infrastructure —, the LGBTQIA+ community — homosexuality is a crime in the country — and women.
In addition, Qatar was involved in a new controversy on Friday (18), when it prohibited the sale of beer in the stadiums of the World Cup. Budweiser, one of the sponsors of the event, was surprised.
Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter said earlier this month that choosing the Arab country to host the event was a mistake.
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