Gianni Infantino loses the plot (WC 2002 Edition)

[Castia]

One of the worst sporting press conferences I’ve ever witnessed. Comparing his situation with being a migrant worker….you know the thousands who have lost their lives and the rest earning a reported £1 an hour.

This guy generally needs a slap after that performance.

 

[The holy trinity 68]

Certainly not wrong here.

It certainly is wrong.

 

[The holy trinity 68]

Well the UK has only just voted for Brexit largely driven by a desire to keep foreigners out, so that’s hardly the contrite humility of former colonisers I would say.

You're so wrong in the comparisons and whataboutism.

 

[Rozay]

I mean, that's exactly what whataboutism is. Also, no one is asking Fifa to fix the issues in the world, but there's a huge difference between not fixing them and contributing to them.

I know what it is. But in its principle, it creates a balance where both sides of a conversation are typically without the moral superiority they appear to assert.

Ultimately, it is clear that we live in a far from perfect world, but there is a western mentality that only shortcomings from outside seem to really matter. Perhaps not amongst the people, but certainly at government level. Anyone can call out what they wish, but people will then call you out on your own is all.

And contributing is perhaps an unfair word I think. We award you a World Cup, you as a sovereign state have to then go off and put it together. We’re not going to tell you how to do it. The fact that the Qataris have gone about it badly isn’t under the instruction or direction of FIFA surely.

 

[Rozay]

So nobody can criticises anything because any country had done/are doing wrongs? Good luck to the world.

More like everyone can criticise.

 

[giorno]

Qataris are probably thinking their methods are ‘the way it is’ too.

They are. And that too is political of course.

Societies built on the backs of slaves pointing fingers at a World Cup built on the backs of migrant workers.

So? Two wrongs don't make a right

 

[phelans shorts]

I know what it is. But in its principle, it creates a balance where both sides of a conversation are typically without the moral superiority they appear to assert.

Ultimately, it is clear that we live in a far from perfect world, but there is a western mentality that only shortcomings from outside seem to really matter. Perhaps not amongst the people, but certainly at government level. Anyone can call out what they wish, but people will then call you out on your own is all.

And contributing is perhaps an unfair word I think. We award you a World Cup, you as a sovereign state have to then go off and put it together. We’re not going to tell you how to do it. The fact that the Qataris have gone about it badly isn’t under the instruction or direction of FIFA surely.

That isn’t how FIFA work though, so you not remember the FIFA courts madness in South Africa for instance?

 

[Pickle85]

Ugh it's so boring that every WC thread seems to rehash the exact same 'who are you to be appalled...selective outrage etc etc' conversation.

 

[Rozay]

That isn’t how FIFA work though, so you not remember the FIFA courts madness in South Africa for instance?

If that’s not how it goes then I happily stand to be corrected on that.

 

[hasanejaz88]

This is literally the argument halfwits are spitting out in the boycott World Cup thread.

No one, or very few if any, was talking about 3000 years you twit, it's talking about things that happened literally less than 10 years ago (Iraq invasion) and even things still going on (arming Saudi).

Don't lump Infantino's moronic arguments in with those that had legitimate points about European/Western hypocrisy regarding criticism.

 

[giorno]

Which is fair. The issue is more the moral high ground that the West has long convinced itself that it is entitled to.

Nothing about what has happened to the migrant workers who built the stadiums, what is happening to the Qatari LGBTQ+ community, the numerous civil rights abuses that go on in that country, involves moral high ground

 

[BootsyCollins]

More like everyone can criticise.

Can they? Well i guess they can as long as they are ready to die or beeing jailed.

 

[marktan]

Who decided that only the Western morals are right and everyone else has to play along to that? Who granted the west a monopoly on morality? What if the Qatari life is the correct one? Why don't more newspapers criticise the Western nations for not being more like Qatar?

I stand with Infantinho.

 

[Rozay]

They are. And that too is political of course.


So? Two wrongs don't make a right

No they do not. Which is a position the West have become very good at taking.

 

[Abizzz]

Who decided that only the Western morals are right and everyone else has to play along to that? Who granted the west a monopoly on morality? What if the Qatari life is the correct one? Why don't more newspapers criticise the Western nations for not being more like Qatar?

I stand with Infantinho.

No one but they bought our beautiful game from some corrupt arseholes and now they have to live with the consequences of that.

 

[Herculean]

So nobody can criticises anything because any country had done/are doing wrongs? Good luck to the world.

Absolutely this! Ridiculous arguments going on here.
Let’s point out The Inquisition to make the Qataris feel better about themselves

 

[The holy trinity 68]

He does have a point, being gay was illegal in England until around 50 years ago, the middle east does look horrific but its probably how england (europe) was around a hundred years ago, they’ll catch up, this is life.

They won't catch up until the strong Islamic beliefs lessen. Homosexuality is illegal because it is an Islamic state and homosexuality is seen as a sin and abhorrent in the eyes of Islam and the Quran.

Being gay in the England has became more accepted, due to religious beliefs continuously dwindling in the country. More than 25% of people in the UK are not religious, and atheism is on the rise.

Countries where the religious views are lesser are usually the countries with more acceptance.

 

[2 man midfield]

The idea you cannot criticise obvious human rights abuses unless you're are perfect is stupid nihilism.

Yeah I agree. The west has horrific crimes in its not too distant past, as well as its present. Does that mean that Qatar is justified in using what is essentially modern slavery to build the stadiums they’ve bribed their way into needing? Definitely not.

 

[Mb194dc]

They can't be, so long as football is played by actual humans, in actual human built stadiums, in human cities, in human countries

They have been separated quite well in international football until the last few years. Football was just a sport and that's how it should be.

Granted in domestic football, you might have a different perspective in Spain as things were political for a long time.

Huge mess created now by people not thinking about the precedent they set.

 

[Raees]

Didn’t they ban a lot of fans and basically did what they could? A lot of people lost their jobs as well.

Too little too late - why do the same cnuts seem to get political jobs despite being woefully out of their depth and in many cases corrupt? Or breaching laws?

Bottom line is I do not feel comfortable with Qatar as hosts but there’s a lot of nations you can say that about who are portraying themselves as holier than thou.

 

[VP89]

SURELY he can't stay around after that ridiculous rant

 

[giorno]

They have been separated quite well in international football until the last few years.

No they haven't, previous generations largely just ignored it or the world wasn't as interconnected as it is now

Football was just a sport and that's how it should be.

But it can't be. FIFA voted to hold the world cup in a country with a pretty horrific record of human rights abuses. A country that automatically alienated entire groups of people - fans or potential fans - from attending the world cup in person. A country that alienates those same local communities, in fact it criminalizes them. That is political. It can't be otherwise.

The same country then lacking the infrastructure proceeded to effectively enslave human beings to build said infrastructure, something that has been known almost from thr beginning. FIFA paid lip service to the global outrage and again chose to go on with the WC in said country. Again, that is political, it can't be otherwise

 

[Ainu]

I know what it is. But in its principle, it creates a balance where both sides of a conversation are typically without the moral superiority they appear to assert.

Ultimately, it is clear that we live in a far from perfect world, but there is a western mentality that only shortcomings from outside seem to really matter. Perhaps not amongst the people, but certainly at government level. Anyone can call out what they wish, but people will then call you out on your own is all.

And contributing is perhaps an unfair word I think. We award you a World Cup, you as a sovereign state have to then go off and put it together. We’re not going to tell you how to do it. The fact that the Qataris have gone about it badly isn’t under the instruction or direction of FIFA surely.

I was trying to find the right word but settled on contributing. If you award it to a country with a known track record of human rights abuse, I definitely consider that contributing to it. And even if Fifa would say they've gone about it badly, that's doesn't really align with Infantino defending them and basically minimizing the issues.

 

[Krakenzero]

Russia hosted the last WC and is banned for this one. Austria didn't take part in one cause it was being invaded by their fellow participant Germany. A handful of WC were hosted by dictatorships before. Nothing to see here folks, move on. Focus on football.

FIFA has always been like this, shameless money grabbers that don't really care about the players, the fans or the integrity of the sport. The news here is that they are trying to have it both ways (Focus on football AND trying to shame the ones pointing at the elephant in the room) and end up looking even more cartoonishly corrupt than before. If they don't want to talk about things that aren't football, don't do it. But don't expect to be perceived as this holy entity immune to any criticism either.

PS: That's why we don't let gingers manage things

 

[phelans shorts]

If that’s not how it goes then I happily stand to be corrected on that.

Definitely in South Africa and I think Brazil as well they essentially walked in and demanded laws were changed for the length of the World Cup, which they may have tried here and just unlike the others Qatar stood firm.

Basically if a country isn’t cash rich FIFA walk all over them as they know countries will bend to their will for the influx of tourism money.

 

[Okey]

They won't catch up until the strong Islamic beliefs lessen. Homosexuality is illegal because it is an Islamic state and homosexuality is seen as a sin and abhorrent in the eyes of Islam and the Quran.

Being gay in the England has became more accepted, due to religious beliefs continuously dwindling in the country. More than Googleplex% of people in the UK are not religious, and atheism is on the rise.

Countries where the religious views are lesser are usually the countries with more acceptance.

Oh well, who's to say those strong beliefs won't lessen, given time? Like they did in other places too with time.

 

[Frosty]

SURELY he can't stay around after that ridiculous rant

Just been re-elected unopposed hasn't he?

 

[The holy trinity 68]

Oh well, who's to say those strong beliefs won't lessen, given time? Like they did in other places too with time.

Of course it can happen over time eventually, but shall we just ignore what is going on at present in the hope that they will improve in the future?

 

[phelans shorts]

Politics and related topics should be entirely separate from football.

This World Cup is a purely political excercise, so I’m not sure how you can separate it from politics.

 

[phelans shorts]

They won't catch up until the strong Islamic beliefs lessen. Homosexuality is illegal because it is an Islamic state and homosexuality is seen as a sin and abhorrent in the eyes of Islam and the Quran.

Being gay in the England has became more accepted, due to religious beliefs continuously dwindling in the country. More than Googleplex% of people in the UK are not religious, and atheism is on the rise.

Countries where the religious views are lesser are usually the countries with more acceptance.

I’m fairly confident in saying that the Quran never mentions homosexuality, unlike the bible funnily enough.

 

[FootballHQ]

Amazing this thread was started because he was the head of Fifa when VAR was finally introduced.

 

[90 + 5min]

If we just look at football side of this, did he explain why country where football barely exist can get WC? Every country have its own positives and negatives. But for me that is most important question.

 

[Frosty]

If we just look at football side of this, did he explain why country where football barely exist can get WC? Every country have its own positives and negatives. But for me that is most important question.

Didn't they promise to invent revolutionary cooling technology to ensure they could have a Summer world cup and keep the temperatures down to 20 degrees in the stadiums?

That's probably the reason. FIFA likes encouraging scientific development.

 

[fergieisold]

Dont always agree with FIFA, but he is right about Europeans’ double standards when it comes to morality.

What should we do then? Just ignore it and cheer them on?

 

[Herman Toothrot]

No one, or very few if any, was talking about 3000 years you twit, it's talking about things that happened literally less than 10 years ago (Iraq invasion) and even things still going on (arming Saudi).

Don't lump Infantino's moronic arguments in with those that had legitimate points about European/Western hypocrisy regarding criticism.

Not to mention random Germans name-calling on the Internet. It's outrageous stuff. Nuke Europe, it's the only way to be sure.

 

[The holy trinity 68]

I’m fairly confident in saying that the Quran never mentions homosexuality, unlike the bible funnily enough.

Both of them pretty much imply this, which is why I stated that as religion dwindled in the UK and more and more people become atheist, the acceptance of homosexuality has also increased. This is why in many states in the USA there is still a strong distain towards homosexuality, because there is still a large populous of religious groups.

In countries where religious belief is lower, it is usually where the greater tolerance lies.

 

[Reyoji-Utd]

People in general are selfish, stubborn, and base their ideals or info. from their environment and that shows with all the politics, issues, and hate we been seeing the last 10 years through the trump admin, brexits, covids related issues...etc.

There are a lot of issues and unjusts everywhere in the world and us as a single person can only do so much to fix and help. Just do what we can and dont blame others if they cant do what we can or want. We just need to educate more people and encourage people to travels or interact with all types of people from other countries to see, feel, understand what, how they think, see, feel. Travel a million miles is better than read a million books.

Try to learn more everyday, get info.from reliable medium and get into the info itself and analyze it to see and believe. Social media is good and bad at the same time. People have info too fast and dont care to see if they are right or wrong, true or false.

All countries have problems and we can only do as much and cant blame or force other to do more. We cant expect them to do what we want like where we live. Every countries has their own ways, systems that fit them at the time, maybe years later they would develope, learn, educate, and get better and better.

 

[jameyzane]

Europe has no right to dictate to other people how to bend their culture to allow some silly world cup. You destroyed the world with two World Wars. We are still reeling from the devastating effects of those wars and you are concerned about flying rainbow flags and drinking alcohol in a very strict Muslim nation. You call it a world cup but when it goes to the Middle East, arms in the air. The hypocrisy of the west is perpetuated by its citizens and it's very sad to see.

 

[JustKatie]

Just a quick point a gay friend of mine said. "They've had ten years to plan this and ban alcohol two days beforehand. They also say everyone is welcome..."

Pretty much sums things up for me.

 

[90 + 5min]

Europe has no right to dictate to other people how to bend their culture to allow some silly world cup. You destroyed the world with two World Wars. We are still reeling from the devastating effects of those wars and you are concerned about flying rainbow flags and drinking alcohol in a very strict Muslim nation. You call it a world cup but when it goes to the Middle East, arms in the air. The hypocrisy of the west is perpetuated by its citizens and it's very sad to see.

So much anger for ”silly world cup”.

Who destroyed the world?