FIFA president accuses Qatar critics of “hypocrites”

“I am a European. For what we have done for 3,000 years around the world, we should apologize for the next 3,000 years before giving moral lessons,” Infantino said.

“It’s hard for me to understand the criticism. We have to invest in helping these people, in education and in giving them a better future and more hope. We all need to educate ourselves, many things are not perfect, but reform and change take time (…) This one-sided moral lesson is nothing more than hypocrisy.”

“It is not easy to accept criticism of a decision made 12 years ago. Doha is ready, Qatar is ready and, of course, It will be the best World Cup in history.“, he added.

Infantino drew on his own experience as the son of immigrant workers who grew up in Switzerland, saying he had been bullied for being Italian, red-haired and freckle-faced.

“I know what it feels like to be discriminated against, I know what it is to be harassed (…) What do you do? You start to commit, this is what we should do. The only way to get results is to commit,” he said.

“I think the changes that have happened in Qatar might not have happened, or at least not at that speed, (without the World Cup). Obviously we have to keep pushing, obviously we have to try to improve things.”

infantino also defended the presence of Iran in the tournament, despite the current wave of protests in the country, sparked by the death of a woman in police custody in September.

“It is not two regimes that face each other, it is not two ideologies that face each other, there are two football teams“, said.

“If we don’t have at least football to unite us, what world are we going to live in? In Iran there are 80 million people, are they all bad? Are they all monsters?” he posed.