[Soccer’s governing body is destroying the World Cup—but for
once, the comically corrupt organization is getting called out for its
sins. ]
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FIFA’S CYNICISM KNOWS NO BOUNDS  
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Alex Shephard
November 22, 2022
The New Republic
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_ Soccer’s governing body is destroying the World Cup—but for
once, the comically corrupt organization is getting called out for its
sins. _

FIFA head Gianni Infantino, Valeriano Di Domenico/Getty Images

 

For nearly an hour on Saturday, FIFA president Gianni Infantino sat
behind a lectern
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and oscillated between channeling John Lennon
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Andrew Cuomo [[link removed]], and
Jesus
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in the name of defending the World Cup’s host country, Qatar, which
has rightfully come under fire for its grotesque treatment
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of migrant workers, women
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It’s hard to pick just one quote from Infantino’s immediately
infamous display, which was more of a piece of performance art than a
press conference. “Today I feel Qatari,” he began, an assertion
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that has rightfully received the majority of the attention from those
covering the event. But he had more to say after that: “Today I feel
Arabic. Today I feel African. Today I feel gay. Today I feel disabled.
Today I feel [like] a migrant worker.” Infantino was, at this point,
trying to make the case that as a child of immigrants—his parents
are Italian but he, like his fabulously corrupt
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predecessor, is Swiss—he could somehow empathize with the migrant
workers whose slave labor built the ornate stadiums that would soon
host matches across the tiny gulf state. Hundreds, perhaps even
thousands, of those same workers died during this pursuit.

You wouldn’t think it possible, but it got worse. “Of course, I am
not Qatari, I am not an Arab, I am not African, I am not gay, I am not
disabled. But I feel like it, because I know what it means to be
discriminated [against], to be bullied, as a foreigner in a foreign
country,” he continued, cringe levels hitting new humiliating
heights. “As a child I was bullied—because I had red hair and
freckles, plus I was Italian, so imagine.”

 

Imagine. Homosexuality is illegal in Qatar. But Infantino—now bald
and unbullied—had forgotten one group. “I feel like a woman
too!” he added, maladroitly.

Naturally, Infantino wasn’t really on hand to empathize with those
who are bullied, imprisoned, or mistreated in Qatar—or anywhere
else. He was there to perform an act of cynical sin-eating. In many
ways, in fact, this press conference was the crowning act of cynicism
in what is shaping up to be the most corrupt World Cup in history—no
small accomplishment given that the last installment was held in
Russia. Infantino dutifully presented himself as an imaginary martyr,
the better to muddy the waters and deflect the critics of Qatar and
FIFA—which awarded the country the 2022 World Cup (and Russia the
2014 World Cup) in 2010 after members of the executive committee were
bribed and stalked
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by former CIA spies in the country’s employ.

“We have been told many, many lessons from some Europeans, from the
Western world,” he said, getting to the point. “I think for what
we Europeans have been doing the last 3,000 years we should be
apologizing for the next 3,000 years before starting to give moral
lessons to people.” The West undoubtedly has much for which to
atone. But this is breathless whataboutist balderdash—and Infantino
has no business using the horrific legacy of slavery, colonialism, and
imperialism to justify a lavish and corrupt World Cup. He, like the
rest of FIFA, has no interest in justice. He’s there to make the
show go on.

“You can crucify me,” he said, really building to an operatic
crescendo of putrescence. “I’m here for that. Don’t criticize
anyone. Don’t criticize Qatar.” And that’s what he really was
there to do: Qatar had come under fire and Infantino stepped up and
gave a Roger Goodell–like performance
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to distract from it. For the past several weeks, sports commentators
had turned themselves loose to shed light on the tawdry roots of this
World Cup. Now, thanks to this absurd monologue about red hair and
colonialism, the attention was all on Infantino.

But Infantino can’t stanch this wound; Qatar’s true colors keep
bleeding through to the surface. Earlier this month, global soccer’s
governing body blocked Denmark from training—only training
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uniforms with the anodyne message “Human Rights for All.” On
Monday, the federation took things even further, blocking requests
from seven countries—England, Wales, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, and
the Netherlands—to wear rainbow captain’s armbands reading a
similarly anodyne message: “One Love.” FIFA threatened to award
each captain a yellow card if they had worn the illicit armband.

Yellow cards do matter
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in the World Cup. In 2018, Japan progressed to the knockout stage over
Senegal because it had accumulated fewer yellow cards during the group
stage. FIFA was, in effect, hijacking the protest: You can make a
statement about gay rights in Qatar and around the world, but you risk
not moving forward. It’s disappointing, but not particularly
surprising, that all seven countries backed down.

It’s a pity. It would have made a tremendous impact
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if any of these countries had moved forward with their protest. Gay
people in repressive countries like Qatar undergo tremendous risks
just to be who they are; wearing the armband and taking a yellow
card—or three, given that is the number of matches played in the
group stage—would have been a profound gesture. But it’s not
particularly surprising that the teams backed down given the potential
cost: not making it to the knockout rounds of the World Cup. Besides,
it’s hardly fair to burden the players with making up for FIFA’s
cowardice.

But bogus attention to Western hypocrisy is exactly what FIFA was
going for when it upped the stakes by blocking this relatively tame
form of protest. It wanted to draw attention away from the fact that,
even as it and many of soccer’s other leagues and governing
federations have drawn attention toward discrimination against women
and LGBTQ people, it has continued to award its most prestigious
tournaments to profoundly regressive countries like Russia and Qatar.
In a World Cup that has been defined by token gestures, this was the
weakest of them all. But perhaps some small measure of solace can be
taken by the fact that these corrupt robber barons of international
sport no longer feel as bulletproof and immune to the opprobrium of
the public as they once were. Some blood has been drawn at last.

Alex Shephard [[link removed]]
@alex_shephard [[link removed]]

Alex Shephard is a staff writer at _The __New Republic__._

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* FIFA president Gianni Infantino; 2022 World Cup; Qatar;
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