Opinion – Marcelo Damato: FIFA’s new clothes became rags in Qatar

Since FIFA was shaken by the FBI’s operation at a lavish convention in Switzerland in 2015, the organization has been trying to change its image. From an organization that only cared about money and was friendly with dictators, it tried to show a more socially responsible face.

The plan was spearheaded by Gianni Infantino, a former Swiss referee who, due to his easy dealings and such a discreet position on the political spectrum in the world of football, no one suspected that he could become FIFA president until he was almost sitting in the chair. .

To give your project a seal of authenticity, who better than a black African woman, who has spent a large part of her life working for the UN in countries with serious problems of hunger, wars, refugees? The Senegalese Fatma Samoura became, at the age of 54, the first woman to become secretary general of FIFA. There was no record of her involvement with the sport.

As soon as he took office, Samoura showed his business card. He banned British players from wearing a pin honoring British soldiers killed in war. He called the tribute political and an affront to dead soldiers from other countries.

Infantino was balancing, until the World Cup arrived. Then it became clear that the image change was superficial. It was just a pretty but poor-quality garment that soon became frayed. What’s in Qatar is not just a dictatorship. The country is practically a private property of the emir, a medieval political system. And very rich.

And so, in place of the human rights discourse, respect for local customs, much more restrictive than those of Russia, host of the World Cup four years earlier, came into play. Qatar is a country with 90% of the population made up of immigrants, who have far fewer rights than locals. Not to mention religious laws.

Thus, beer was banned from around the stadiums two days before the opening (Infantino only found out about the requirement at the time or did he prefer to make a fool of himself?), captain’s armbands with the colors of the rainbow were banned under threat of punishment to captains. The UN-endorsed “No discrimination” alternative is so bland that even the Saudi captain wasn’t afraid to use it. If the feared Prince Mohammed Bin Salman accepts it, who cares?

On the first day of games without the host, there were still protests, from England and Iran. But the tendency is for them to disappear, with a little push from FIFA.

Denmark marked its position by making its shield invisible. It’s the kind of protest that needs a caption. Zero effect.

Infantino knows that the basis of his power is to raise money to satisfy the leaders of continental confederations and national federations.

The top hat learned that he needs to make the Cup business grow more and more. It is for this reason that the first Cup to be organized 100% under his management will have 48 teams and three host countries.

That is, money is necessary and ethics desirable. When the two collide there’s not much doubt about which side will carry more weight. And not just in football, obviously.

As the historic leader Deng Xiaoping said, to be heard in the world you need money.

And Argentina, huh? What a thing…