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20-11-2022, 02:48 PM
November 19, 202211:07 PM GMT+8Last Updated 16 hours ago
By Nick Mulvenney
AL RAYYAN, Qatar, Nov 19 (Reuters) - FIFA president Gianni Infantino accused critics of World Cup host Qatar's treatment of migrant workers of hypocrisy on Saturday, adding that engagement was the only way to improve human rights.
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"I am European. For what we have been doing for 3,000 years around the world, we should be apologising for the next 3,000 years before giving moral lessons," he said.
"I have difficulties understanding the criticism. We have to invest in helping these people, in education and to give them a better future and more hope. We should all educate ourselves, many things are not perfect but reform and change takes time.
"This one-sided moral lesson is just hypocrisy," he said.
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Infantino drew on his own experience as the child of migrant workers growing up in Switzerland, saying he had been bullied for being Italian and for having red hair and freckles.
"I know what it feels to be discriminated (against), I know what it's like to be bullied," he said.
"What do you do? You start engaging, this is what we should be doing... The only way of getting results is by engaging.
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Infantino also defended the presence of Iran at the tournament despite the current spate of deadly protests there sparked by the death of a woman in police custody in September.
"It's not two regimes playing against each other, it's not two ideologies playing against each other, it's two football teams," he said.
"If we don't have at least football to bring us together... which world are we going to live in? In Iran there are 80 million people, are they all bad? Are they all monsters?"
https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports...022-11-19/
By Nick Mulvenney
AL RAYYAN, Qatar, Nov 19 (Reuters) - FIFA president Gianni Infantino accused critics of World Cup host Qatar's treatment of migrant workers of hypocrisy on Saturday, adding that engagement was the only way to improve human rights.
......
"I am European. For what we have been doing for 3,000 years around the world, we should be apologising for the next 3,000 years before giving moral lessons," he said.
"I have difficulties understanding the criticism. We have to invest in helping these people, in education and to give them a better future and more hope. We should all educate ourselves, many things are not perfect but reform and change takes time.
"This one-sided moral lesson is just hypocrisy," he said.
......
Infantino drew on his own experience as the child of migrant workers growing up in Switzerland, saying he had been bullied for being Italian and for having red hair and freckles.
"I know what it feels to be discriminated (against), I know what it's like to be bullied," he said.
"What do you do? You start engaging, this is what we should be doing... The only way of getting results is by engaging.
......
Infantino also defended the presence of Iran at the tournament despite the current spate of deadly protests there sparked by the death of a woman in police custody in September.
"It's not two regimes playing against each other, it's not two ideologies playing against each other, it's two football teams," he said.
"If we don't have at least football to bring us together... which world are we going to live in? In Iran there are 80 million people, are they all bad? Are they all monsters?"
https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports...022-11-19/
