Infantino proves terrible as World Cup’s defender
GIANNI Infantino’s problem is self-awareness.
It is being unable to grasp that as President of world football’s governing body FIFA, he is still the face of an organisation the game doesn’t trust.
It is being unable to read the room as he urges the media to focus on football instead of human rights – then pivots to football’s potential to solve the world’s ills.
His explosive, hour-long monologue on Saturday struck a chord with vast audiences outside Europe convinced that the West looks down on them.
Although he was painted as “bonkers” in some places, that’s because Europe – and England in particular – hates having to look in the mirror.
But Infantino was the wrong man to deliver that speech. FIFA dismissed Qatar’s misogyny and intolerance to give them the World Cup before moving it to the winter.
That’s not to say that an Arab nation shouldn’t host the World Cup. Goodness me, Europe and South America have bounced it around for decades.
Speaking to locals in the Souq Waqif, Doha’s rich cultural and gastronomic hub, that’s very much their view.
We’ve been met here with warmth and positivity. Colour, culture and a country bending over backwards to please.
Walking with Iranian fans to the Khalifa International Stadium for England’s opening game yesterday, the political chaos ravaging their country was not forgotten amid this festival of football.
But they are loving this first Arab World Cup. A sea of red, green white and blue on Monday afternoon was soaked in joy, laughter and strangers navigating the language barrier.
You could barely hear yourself think over the Klaxon horns in the stadium.
And that side of it matters because some accounts of Qatar back in England don’t match the reality.
But again, Infantino is the wrong man to make that argument.
His relationship with the gas-rich Gulf state will always be seen as transactional. He has moved from Europe to live there. Would he be as passionate if it didn’t pay as well?
Fans outside Europe feel controversy has always plagued World Cups in countries other than the established footballing powerhouses. Ahead of 2010, South Africa was framed as violent and incompetent, incapable of staging the tournament.
Instead visitors were killed by kindness, rather than criminals, at a jamboree later described as one of the best ever.
Likewise in Brazil 2014 which was preceded by genuine concerns that the poorest families in cities Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Porto Alegre were being forced from their homes to accommodate the football.
But there were unfounded worries of killings in the favelas and (again) stadiums not being finished.
That’s not to suggest those problems didn’t exist. Or that the football will render everything else insignificant now.
More that Qatar’s human rights issues have needed to be addressed long before the World Cup arrived here.
But then another seven countries competing here are also anti-gay.
In England (where our FA wants to host Euro2028) politicians vote for kids not to be fed and migrants are detained in appalling, overcrowded conditions.
People pushing back on the negativity around Qatar are criticised for ‘whataboutery’ – but Britons are living that whataboutery every day.
Cards on the table, I don’t even have that much of an issue with an alcohol ban. Especially with England fans rolling into town. Cast your mind back to last year’s drunken, drugged-up thugs sticking flares into their backsides at the European Championship Final. Also assaulting stewards and breaking in to watch the game against Italy. Where? At England’s Wembley Stadium.
So the West absolutely does need to look in the mirror over a variety of issues. Infantino, however, needs
to start first.
Qatar human rights needed addressing long before this World Cup