FIFA President Gianni Infantino Has His Say On 'Beer Ban' At World Cup

FIFA president Gianni Infantino, Saturday, reacted to the beer ban and said fans 'can survive' without beer for three hours.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino hit back on World Cup critics.

Source : AFP

FIFA World Cup 2022 host, Qatar, cropped up a lot of criticism for its human rights issues, treatment of LGBTQ communit, women and migrant workers in the Gulf state. Things boiled over more on Thursday after Qatar dramatically announced a complete ban on sale and consumption of beer around eight stadiums where matches of the football tournament will be held. Qatar is a Muslim majority country where selling of alcohol is largely restricted.

On the eve of FIFA World Cup 2022 kick-off, president Gianni Infantino, Saturday, reacted to the beer ban and said fans 'can survive' without beer for three hours. "I think personally if for three hours a day you cannot drink a beer, you will survive. The same applies in France, Spain, Scotland," Infantino told reporters during the opening press conference of World Cup in Doha, Livemint reported.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino hit back on World Cup critics

Reacting to Qatar and FIFA's criticism over the recent developments, Infantino delivered a rousing speech, stating that Europeans had no right to teach morals to the world.

"I think for what we Europeans have been doing for 3,000 years around the world, we should be apologising for the next 3,000 years before starting to give moral lessons to people," Infantino said.

"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," he added.

"Of course, I’m not Qatari, I’m not Arab, I’m not African, not gay, not disabled, not really a migrant worker. I feel like them because I know what it means to be discriminated, as a foreigner in a foreign country, as a child at school I was bullied as I had red hair & freckles," Infantino further said.

Infantino said the moral lesson giving was hypocrisy.

"Of course, there are things that don’t work [in Qatar] and need to be addressed. But this moral lesson giving, one-sided, it is just hypocrisy," Infantio said.