Status: 11/19/2022 4:53 p.m
FIFA President Gianni Infantino attacks Europe and its critics. In a bizarre press conference, he presents his association as the solution to the world’s problems.
In the end it was 99 minutes instead of the advertised “45 or so”. That was only fair because it was a press conference, after all, that was supposed to have journalists’ questions and answers. But first, the man held a 60-minute monologue for the answers.
This man was Gianni Infantino, 52-year-old Swiss, President of the World Football Association FIFA. He recently asked that because of the upcoming World Cup, we should talk about football and not about politics. Then he traveled to the G20 summit of the world’s most powerful politicians and, as the head of a sports association, called for a ceasefire in Ukraine for the duration of the tournament.
“Then maybe it will be better”
His monologue on Saturday (11/19/2022) and his answers later went even further. Infantino sent the message to the world that FIFA makes the world a better place, it just needs time.
The message of the angel of peace culminated in an assumption. Perhaps, Infantino said, something would change in Iran if FIFA held a tournament there: “Then maybe things will get better.”
In Iran, people are currently being put to death who, aware of the danger, protest against the regime and demand reforms and human rights. On Friday, Bernd Neuendorf, President of the German Football Association (DFB), spoke of “very, very courageous women in Iran” and called on FIFA to “take a stance”.
Infantino did that a day later in a very large hall of the very large media center. He did this without condemning the regime and encouraging women. Instead, he offered to come to the country with FIFA. He also asked a counter-question to the Englishman who had asked him. “There are about 60 million people in England. Do you think they’re all good?”
Perfectly staged PR show
That was the President’s strategy: Whataboutism at its finest. Whataboutism means to put any criticism into perspective, to distract, to refer to “double standards” and “hypocrisy”. His destination: Europe. The continent was the target of all attacks, which were presented in a perfectly staged PR show, including artistic breaks and plenty of pathos.
“I think what we Europeans have done worldwide for the past 3,000 years, we should apologize for the next 3,000 years before we start giving moral advice to others,” said Infantino.
Essentially a valid point, but also a distraction, because showing the catastrophic conditions under which migrant workers built the stadiums, the metro, the skyscrapers and the boulevards in Qatar is not a lecture.
“Today,” Infantino began, he had “strong feelings.” Today he feels “like a Qatari, like an Arab, like an African, like a homosexual, like someone with disabilities”. When later pointed out that he didn’t “feel like a woman,” he yelled into the microphone several times, “I feel like a woman.” He also has “four daughters”. Whataboutism in its purest form.
First Russia, now Qatar
Infantino has been President of FIFA since 2016, his second World Cup in office. His first was in Russia. The images of him hugging President Vladimir Putin were slightly disturbing even then, as were those in a similar pose with Donald Trump. Infantino called the Russian autocrat a “friend” at the time, and he never lets friends go.
Russian teams have been banned from competitions, but the association is still a member of FIFA. Infantino has never called Putin’s war of aggression that. In Doha he called for a “dialogue” between Russia and Ukraine. That is “the message of football”, which he also delivered at the G20 summit.
“Joint Venture” between FIFA and Qatar
The history of major events and their aftermath has shown, not only since the 2018 World Cup in Russia, that the positive effect that is previously invoked usually fails to materialize. Qatar, Infantino is convinced, will be the exception. Every decision made over the past few years, months, weeks and days has been closely discussed with the Qataris.
Infantino called the connection between the football association and the Emirate on the Persian Gulf a “joint venture”, which criminalizes homosexual acts and extramarital sex. There are discriminatory laws in every country in the world, Infantino claimed. Also: He, the son of guest workers, was teased as a child: “Because of my red hair and freckles.”
FIFA is foreign to discrimination, said Infantino. Media Director Bryan Swanson spoke at the end of the press conference in support of this thesis. He sits here as a gay man and can assure you that nothing and nobody is more inclusive than FIFA. Then he hugged the President because Infantino was primarily responsible for that.
Source: sportschau.de