Neville hits out at King and Prince William
GARY NEVILLE appeared to criticise the King and Prince of Wales in his latest defence over his involvement with a Qatari broadcaster at the World Cup.
The pundit, who struck deals with both ITV and Doha-based BEIN Sports, suggested prominent figures in Britain had been hypocritical in shunning the region. Neville cited Prince William’s decision not to fly out to Qatar while his father, King Charles, receives £2.6million in donations from a senior Qatari politician.
“If Prince William doesn’t want to come to this tournament but he’s okay with his father taking charitable donations, that’s fine,” he told ITV. “If the political MPS don’t want to come over but are happy to take money from them in our country for their political parties that’s fine with me, but I always see it as footballers and ex-footballers coming under criticism.”
The former Manchester United defender made his debut on BEIN Sports this week and quickly condemned Fifa president Gianni Infantino as a “terrible face for football” during his coverage.
But having a faced a storm of criticism himself for taking Qatari money, he said: “In my point of view, football should stand up, footballers should stand up. There’s another issue with the ‘One Love’ armband, the political and social issues that I’m delighted to talk about. There’s a conversation to be had because my point always is, should there be a World Cup in all parts of the world? Should there be a World Cup in the Middle East? Should there be a World Cup in Arab countries? There almost definitely should be.”
During his appearance on ITV, Neville added he believed Qatar had the right to host the World Cup.
“I don’t feel conflicted,” he said. “I’ve been coming over to the Middle East for 20 years and to South-east Asia. I’ve had business and commercial relationships with these parts for a long, long time.
“People have criticised our colleagues on the BBC for coming over here...
“My view on it, quite simply, is I detest human rights abuses. I hate the idea of not paying people enough money, people working in poor conditions, the idea of people not having good living conditions.”
Neville’s friend and former teammate David Beckham was also a controversial presence at England’s opening match, having received a £10millionplus cheque to be a Qatar World Cup ambassador.