FIFA president on the World Cup clusterf***

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

FIFA head says fans ‘will survive’ without beer at World Cup

DOHA, Qatar (AP) — FIFA president Gianni Infantino downplayed Qatar’s last minute ban on the sale of beer at World Cup stadiums as nothing more than a brief inconvenience to spectators.

“If this is the biggest problem we have, I’ll sign that (agreement),” Infantino said Saturday, a day after the conservative Muslim emirate did an about-face on the deal it had made to secure the soccer tournament.

Infantino blamed “crowd flows” in Doha for the decision, though it appeared to be a ruling by Qatar’s autocratic government to placate its conservative Wahhabi citizens who already have been angered by some events around the tournament they view as Western excesses.

Infantino said the beer ban at stadiums was made jointly by Qatar officials and FIFA.

“We tried until the end to see whether it was possible,” Infantino said of allowing alcohol sales. “If for 3 hours a day you cannot drink a beer, you will survive. Maybe there is a reason why in France, in Spain, in Scotland, alcohol is banned in stadiums. Maybe they are more intelligent than us, having thought maybe we should be doing that.”

https://apnews.com/article/world-cup-soccer-sports-business-760c6bac905fc67a7bc23d67f9831e03

World Cup 2022: FIFA president says criticism of Qatar is 'hypocrisy' in 'crass' and 'infuriating' news conference

DOHA, Qatar — FIFA president Gianni Infantino launched an extraordinary, scathing defense of Qatar and the 2022 World Cup at a Saturday news conference, during which he targeted the “hypocrisy” of Western critics and used whataboutism to defend the host country’s record on human rights.

Infantino, speaking for the first time in months on the eve of the tournament, addressed the most frequent criticism of this World Cup by comparing the current state of workers’ rights, LGBTQ rights and women’s rights in Qatar to those in 20th century Europe; by pleading that “reform and change takes time”; and by arguing in an impassioned hour-long monologue that FIFA has helped accelerate progress in Qatar.

Speaking directly to Europe, he implicitly cited colonialism and centuries of other atrocities, and argued that, “for what we Europeans have been doing in the last 3,000 years around the world, we should be apologizing for the next 3,000 years before starting to give moral lessons to people.”

He argued that Qatar deserved credit for opening its doors to migrants while many wealthy Western countries often close their doors. “If you all really care about the destiny of these people, of these young people, Europe could also do as Qatar did, create some channels, legal channels, so that at least a number of these workers could come to Europe,” Infantino said. “Give them some work, give them some future, give them some hope.”

https://sports.yahoo.com/world-cup-2022-fifa-president-says-criticism-of-qatar-is-hypocrisy-in-crass-and-infuriating-news-conference-133818270.html