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Bengaluru/Doha, November 19: FIFA President Gianni Infantino's "I feel gay" comment in the pre-event press conference of the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup prompted accusations of hypocrisy on social media given he heads an organisation that is staging the World Cup in a country with such an oppressive outlook on homosexuality.
"Today I have very strong feelings. Today, I feel Qatari. Today, I feel Arab. Today, I feel African. Today, I feel gay. Today, I feel disabled. Today, I feel a migrant worker.
"I feel all this because what I have been seeing and what I have been told, since I don't read, otherwise I will be depressed," Infantino had said in his opening address in the pre-event presser at the Main Media Centre at the Qatar National Convention Cente in Doha.
"I can't believe that Gianni Infantino thought of this, wrote it down, pondered over it and still said it out loud," one tweet read.
I cannot believe that Gianni Infantino thought of this, wrote it down, pondered over it and still said it out loud.
— HLTCO (@HLTCO) November 19, 2022
“Today I feel Qatari. Today I feel Arab. Today I feel African. Today I feel gay. Today I feel disabled. Today I feel a migrant worker.”
pic.twitter.com/ys5HwLtBX5
"Of course, I'm not Qatari, I'm not Arab, I'm not African, I'm not gay, I'm not disabled, I'm not a migrant worker but I feel like them because I know what it feels to be discriminated against by a bully," the FIFA chief had clarified later, but the damage had already been done.
"FIFA boss Gianni Infantino has been labelled 'mad' and 'insulting' for a bizarre speech ahead of the Qatar World Cup in which he called himself 'gay, Arab and disabled," a leading British media outlet tweeted.
FIFA boss Gianni Infantino has been labelled 'mad' and 'insulting' for a bizarre speech ahead of the Qatar World Cup in which he called himself 'gay, Arab and disabled'https://t.co/AduehvEVtz
— LBC (@LBC) November 19, 2022
"He's in for a tough time at this World Cup," journalist tweeted.
Gianni Infantino: "Today I have very strong feelings. Today I feel Qatari. Today I feel Arab. Today I feel African. Today I feel gay. Today I feel disabled. Today I feel a migrant worker."
— Daniel Storey (@danielstorey85) November 19, 2022
He's in for a tough time at this World Cup.
Infantino had gone on to justify his comments, saying the gay community's belief's should be honoured.
"If we were to exclude all these countries, you're playing football with just you and me.
"I think football has to bring people together and I think we have to welcome everybody. Gay people are welcome in Qatar - we need to engage, don't provoke.
"How many gay people were prosecuted in Europe? It was a process, we went through a process. We seem to forget.
"We shouldn't take for granted that a country that has not had the same chance for development as we had in Europe.
"We have to have our beliefs, engage and explain. I think provocation is the wrong way. I may be right, may be wrong. I try to engage."
The Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup, the first to be held in Middle East and the entire Arab world kicks off on Sunday (November 20).
The 29-day affair, the shortest World Cup in FIFA history, will conclude on December 18, the Qatar National Day.
In the build up to the tournament, a top official of Qatar 2022 organising committe had said that the rainbow flags could be taken away from fans to protect them from being attacked for promoting gay rights.
"If he (a fan) raised the rainbow flag and I took it from him, it's not because I really want to, really, take it, to really insult him, but to protect him," Qatar 2022 official Major General Abdulaziz Abdullah Al Ansari had said earlier.
Al Ansari, who is a senior official overseeing security for the tournament insisted that LGBTQ couples would be welcomed and accepted in Qatar for the FIFA showpiece despite same-sex relations remaining criminalised in the conservative Gulf nation.
