Gianni Infantino oh dear …. by Dan Smith
Forget about Qatar for a moment, the 52 was old was elected to reform FIFA.
That’s his job, what he gets paid lots of money to do so.
Up to this week, he’s said the right things to portray himself nothing like Sepp Blatter.
Yet less than 48 hours before the World Cup kicks off, he followed through with essentially what Qatar paid voters to do over a decade ago (of course that will never be publicly admitted).
Here was the man essentially in charge of the sport reciting a monologue that lasted over 50 minutes defending the host nation, pointing out to the progress they have made and telling Europe where they have gone wrong in the past.
He never once condemned anything about their Human Rights Record.
He then had one of his employees (who happened to be ‘gay’) tell a stunned room that Mr Infantino does care and that same sexed couples will be welcomed.
Two males from Europe telling a worldwide press conference how great a country is.
If you wanted to know what ‘Sport Washing is’ this is it.
A nation where Football is not popular, pay millions to have rights to events so popular they know eyes will be on the product, so by association the focus is on them.
That’s when they write cheques big enough for those with influence to promote their propaganda.
Just to make it shadier, journalists had their microphones silenced, asking questions only when permitted.
In other words, they were forced to hear this speech like they were in front of a Mafia leader.
Of course, his timing wasn’t a coincidence.
He’s had years to challenge the West’s concerns and seemed sympathetic up to the eve of the tournament?
Maybe certain players and associations would have boycotted had FIFA stressed this was their moral compass sooner?
Just like why for 12 years they were adamant visitors could purchase alcohol in stadiums.
They cynically waited for tickets and flights to be booked before revealing they were lying.
Mr Infantino told the 32 competing teams to not focus on politics.
Not just was he contradicting his own rules, the only politics he wanted to preach was the history of Europe and not the Middle East.
Only FIFA could let the head man get away with saying he represented, migrants, disabled and gays and not point out how those groups are treated in the very place he was sitting.
It was surreal.
If you knew nothing about respective laws, the way he was speaking you would have assumed the West was in the wrong and this World Cup somehow was offering hope.
I’m assuming the Swiss/Italian is an educated man and doesn’t believe most of his dialogue. He knows that viewers know why he’s saying what’s coming out of his mouth.
He knows that being a foreigner in a country can’t be compared to the discrimination you face in Qatar if you’re a female who doesn’t do what she’s told, and/or you love the same gender.
It’s sick to pretend you can relate to Migrant workers when 6,500 have been reported dead due to the conditions they faced building stadiums.
Those figures have come from Embassys.
Tell those families what’s better ….
Europe with it struct rule for immigrants?
Or Qatar handing out jobs that leads to death?
Mr Infantino is correct of course to point out the West hasn’t always been and isn’t perfect now.
Pick any country, there will a moment in time where you could question their morality.
Yet, saying something wrong now being okay, because something was wrong before, is quite a weak stance.
I’m quite sure you would fail your history homework if that was your argument,
So, it’s embarrassing that a grown adult in such a high-profile role should be making it.
You can learn from history though. If I look at England’s past, I don’t agree with every action taken from every king, Queen or Government that ever ran the country.
That’s why you learn from what went on before.
That’s why a generation are saying that in 2022 the world should be above issues where a human is judged on what they look like or their life choices.
That’s why I feel the notion of ‘don’t mix politics with sport’ is something FIFA hide behind.
No one is telling any nation how their country should be run and if you’re a tourist you should respect the culture your visiting.
All your asking is for Human Right Laws to be followed.
If you can’t do that, then maybe you shouldn’t be hosting a World Cup?
FIFA’s own rules stress that any association connected to them shouldn’t discriminate in anyway or be controlled by their governments.
If FIFA disagree, then why pretend for 12 years that wasn’t the case?
Dan
Like his predecessor, he is obviously corrupt and his speech was his way of defending himself and his indefensibly corrupt organisation. He should be shunned and whilst withdrawal is unthinkable at this late stage England should not be taking part in this farce of a so called sporting event which is an insult to all right-minded sports fans.
Let this year’s World Cup be a lesson for FIFA and other related football associations, to do a thorough investigation in the selected country before making a big decision
If many people want to keep politicizing football, they might as well maximize their efforts to prevent conflicts and allegations
As far as I know, the dead workers’ countries are still allowing their citizens to work in such conditions in Qatar. The governments of those countries should’ve used them to build their own countries instead
GAI, they did “a thorough investigation” and this thoroughly corrupt organization FIFA, knew who had the money and were prepared to be bribed to overlook all the issues Dan has raised.
And to think that the Australian Football Federation wasted tens of millions of dollars to try and honestly compete (with all the stadia built and operational) to hold this tainted competition. These funds would have been far better used supporting development of players and the game in Australia.
By the way GAI, where do countries like Bangladesh and Pakistan get the money to pay their workers to build infrastructure, when they are basically bankrupt?
Those countries should’ve equipped their citizens to compete in IT field as India has been doing and limit their population growths since twenty years ago. Population control is against their ideology, but they must do it because they don’t have a lot of fossil fuel resources to sell
If Finland could train their life-sentenced inmates in digital field to get money from abroad, those countries should be able to improve their citizens’ skills as well. They aren’t landlocked countries, their populations are smaller than India/ China and they don’t have big religious conflicts as Lebanon has, so they should’ve done better
GAI, it is a bit hard to get any education, let alone in IT, when the population are working from an early age just to earn enough to subsist. I recommend you inform yourself further on the issues in such countries.
Ozzie, the representatives of all football associations listed in FIFA membership and Human Rights Watch organization should’ve assessed the situation in the selected country as well, before officially announcing the future host. I bet they didn’t do it
It was a shame Australia spent so much money for a rigged game, which could’ve been used to train the next Kewell and Viduka. Been a long time since we see a high profile Australian footballer in EPL
Mark Schwarzer, Matt Ryan, Aaron Moy? None current.
“Let this years World Cup be a lesson for FIFA” ??
Yes, the lesson they learned is that corrupt countries will pay your corrupt organisation billions of £/$/€ to host said World Cup. !
££££££££ trumps thorough investigation every day of the week and twice on Sunday.
The man is a corrupt fool, just like Blatter, FIFA is a greedy organisation concerned more about lining their own pockets than football worldwide, I don’t blame Qatar, I blame FIFA, we rightly bring to the attention of the human rights violation in Qatar, but say nothing about the fact Ukraine bans same-sex marriage, nothing said about how we sell arms to Saudi, we need to look at our own back yard before we pass judgment of others. Right now I only care about our players coming back match fit
Crap write up, u don’t make sense, trying too hard to make sense of what doesnt make can never make sense
Ironically cryptic response
Every time Infantino opens his mouth he sets himself up for ridicule, and this most recent one will last the rest of his career… if he has one left.
Sometime the FBI or another intelligence service will flush him out of Doha and he’ll get what’s coming to him along with the dozens of other corrupt FIFA crooks.
Having watched that disgraceful rant, I can only conclude that Infantino will surely have a date with the FBI in future. Only a corrupted head of FIFA could engage in 50+ minutes of gaslighting, whataboutism, deflection, and denials.I’ve never known Infantino to be this dumb and out of touch. What does he understand about being an immigrant worker? Do immigrant workers wear Stefano Ricci or Lacroix ties? Did he work long hours under Qatari heat and got stiffed out of his meager pay by the agents working directly under the qatari govt? Has he ever lived in those crammed “rooms”? Exactly What part of immigrant workers’ life does Infantino “feel” ? And asking an innocent subordinate to publicly share parts of his life that we consider private is just immoral.
So he took a page out of the book used by western politicians?
@Perry
🎯 RealTalk
Rather than join the rightful chorus of condemnation towards this ridiculous person, in charge of a ludicrously corrupt organisation, I find this outburst to be, inpractical terms, likely to be good news.
It failed spectacularly in its aim of course. The whole world knows that. And THAT massive faux pas is therefore good news , as it focuses even more worldwide indignation, both on FIFA and the hateful Qatar itself.
It was, in football terms, a massive own goal and that will prove good news , as it puts yet anothe nail in FIFA’s already risible reputation and shows graphically the true EXTENT of the catastrophe in awarding the WC to such a hateful and anti human , Neanderthal regime.
So in essence, rather than have angst, I rejoice at this own goal for the bad guys and a positive goal, for the good guys.
Just as we Gooners would rejoice if Spuds/ United/ Chelsea/ City etc scored an actual own goal, so we should all rejoice at this massively more damaging own goal. Hurray!
Europe can’t now blame Infantino for his anti-Europe ranting in Doha. Because they are the ones who un the first place put him there as Fifa president. When as the majority Fifa member Nations voted overwhelmingly to elect him as Fifa president in a Fifa presidential election.
I had thought the Jordanian, Ali will get elected as Fifa president in that election that instead saw Infantino elected.
So, as Infantino looks to be money and power drunk now to the extend of condemning his own people who put him on the seat of power as President of Fifa. I think Europe has itself to blame.
Man these corporations are as corrupt as it gets.
I just makes me sick that our system has been built on making money in whatever way, be it if it’s detrimental to human morality.
Morality is now equal to whoever has the most money, power and influence. These people are so narcissistic and neurotic that human life means nothing to them as long as it is getting in the way of them making money. They will skirt the rules through bribery in order to get what they want.
The more older i get the more I lose passion for football and our neo capitalistic system that has no regulations. Loopholes are always afforded to those that are good at generating vast amounts of wealth on the backs of the normal working person.
It is sick..
No country comes out financially better after hosting the World Cup
FIFA earns record $7.5bn revenue for Qatar World Cup
http://www.aljazeera.com › sports › 2022/11/20
TV rights for the 2018 World Cup in Russia were sold to broadcasters around the world for $4.6bn. But that is kept by FIFA, football’s world governing body.
As are ticket sales, which are owned by a subsidiary company 100 percent owned by FIFA. Marketing rights, which brought in more than $1bn in the 2018 cycle are, too, kept by FIFA.
The body does, however, cover the principal costs of running the tournament – it will be paying Qatar in the region of $1.7bn, though that includes a $440m prize pot for teams.
Qatar is understood to have spent in excess of $200bn on this World Cup and the infrastructure around it – hotels and leisure facilities, overhauling its entire road network and constructing a rail system.
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I do not think he is a crook, well not to the same degree that Blatter was but neither is he a reformer. He has inherited a huge mess and just pretended that stuff was not happening. He is the epitomy of a faceless bureaucrat muddling along oblivious to what is happening around him. The gut really has backbone.
His speech was just a joke. When he said he was migrant worker, Alex Scott had the best response “no you’re not, you are an executive earning a million pounds a year’
Why can’t everybody just forget about Qatar. It is already underway. There is nothing we can do about it now!!!
Instead, why can’t we concentrate on forcing the FA to explain to us why Infantino is being re-elected “uncontested”
We stopped the Super League (for now anyway)
Then get them to tell us how we can STOP Infantino!!!
Additionally, I really would like to encourage the FA to force FIFA to tell us how we could get the Referee and the VAR magician from the England Iran match to explain how they called the “Bear Hugs” that both Stones and Maguire were so publicly subjected to as not sufficient to be a called a penalty,
but called the much less obvious foul on an Iran player as a Penalty.
When I see such a difference in VAR consistency I start to worry that something smells in Geneva