World Cup 2022: Infantino defends FIFA, Qatar, tells Europe to apologise for atrocities

Facing the global press in a mid-morning briefing just hours before the 2022 showpiece gets underway here in Doha, Mr. Infantino did not hold back, putting the western media, who have roundly condemned FIFA for its award of the world cup rights to Qatar.

In fact, Infantino did not stop at that, asking the western press and Europe to self evaluate and apologise for the 'atrocities' it has committed to the world in the last 3,000 years.

“We’ve been told many stories, from Europeans, from western world. What the Europeans have been doing should be apologising for atrocities committed in the last 3,000 years before beginning to give moral lessons,” he barked. “I’m not here to defend Qatar, they can defend themselves, I’m here to defend football. If there was no gas no one would care…,” he said without elaborating.

Infantino also took the bulk of his time, to document his own struggles, as a child of an immigrant worker in Switzerland, while drawing comparison to the Qatari immigrant workers and minorities such as gays, many of whom have been subjected to ill treatment in the gulf.

“Today I feel Qatari, today I feel Arab, today I feel African, today I feel gay, today I feel disabled, today I feel immigrant worker, and I feel all these because what I have been seeing, and what I’ve been told because I don’t read,” he said as he laid the tone of his presser, rebuking the western media coverage of the build-up to the championship.

Noting that a lot of progress had been made regarding the rights of immigrant workers, Infantino also shared his story as a boy, born to Italian immigrants in Switzerland.

“What I see brings me back to my personal story. I’m a son of immigrant workers, my parents were working very hard in very very difficult conditions in Switzerland. I remember very well… and I’m not speaking about apartheid in South Africa…

“I remember as a child how immigrant workers were treated when they wanted to enter the country for work, at the borders... and when I came to Doha for the first time after I was elected the President, I came to see some of the immigrant workers here and said this is not right, we have to do something," he said, adding that, "Qatar has made progress, because I feel many other things."

I know what it means to be discriminated against, to be bullied, plus I was Italian (living in Switzerland), I didn’t speak good German, so what do you do about that? Lock yourself in a room and cry …then you try to make some friends?”

The World Cup begins Sunday with the hosts entertaining Ecuador in the opening game from 7PM(EAST time).