‘We have been told many, many lessons from some Europeans, from the Western World. I think for what we Europeans have been doing in the last 3,000 years around the world, we should be apologising for the next 3,000 years before starting to give moral lessons to people.’

Those were the astonishingly ignorant and offensive words from FIFA President Gianni Infantino given in response to an outpouring of criticism directed at Qatar.

An earlier letter with the same patronising tone was circulated by Gianni Infantino and Fatma Samoura specifically targeting Australia, Belgium, Denmark, England, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and America. It was sent after Qatar became frustrated by attempts made by these nations to improve conditions for persecuted groups.

FIFA President HITS BACK at Qatar criticism, insisting WE should apologise for ‘3000 YEARS of oppression’

— GB News (@GBNEWS) November 19, 2022

Hosting the World Cup in Qatar was a controversial decision, given Qatar’s appalling human rights record and current treatment of the LGBTQ+ community, women, and migrant workers who continue to complain of serious exploitation bordering on slave labour.

Qatar is an especially odd choice for the World Cup with the hyper-Woke in the middle of a moral tailspin where Halloween costumes are deemed ‘offensive’ and forgetting someone’s fantasy gender can land you in prison.

In today’s world, sport has become a stadium for politics – whether that means bending the knee to Marxism or painting rainbows on the grass. Why should the World Cup be exempt from these standards simply because it is being held in a ‘diverse’ nation?

We should not be surprised that FIFA is a little touchy over the whole thing. Qatar’s selection came under the shadow of persistent corruption allegations – which have been stringently denied by Qatar and were the subject of multiple investigations that set public faith in the selection process at an all-time low.

None of which excuses Infantino’s comments, which were astoundingly ignorant and ignore the enormous strides that the West has made for the liberty, peace, and success of the world – often dragging other countries out of the Dark Ages and setting internationally recognised standards for human behaviour. Would Qatar be racing to amend legislation if not for the West tut-tutting them while waving precious US dollars in front of their leaders?

He added:

‘Today I feel Qatari. Today I feel Arabic. Today I feel African. Today I feel gay. Today I feel disabled. Today I feel (like) a migrant worker.’

Isn’t that cultural appropriation? Identifying as a different race, culture, and sexuality is usually frowned upon in virtuous social media circles so we’ll wait and see if he gets away with it.

‘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, to be bullied, as a foreigner in a foreign country. As a child I was bullied – because I had red hair and freckles, plus I was Italian so imagine. What do you do then? You try to engage, make friends. Don’t start accusing, fighting, insulting, you start engaging. And this is what we should be doing.’

Yikes, mate. Put the shovel down.

It might come as a shock to Infantino, but all kids are bullied. What you don’t do is start assuming other people’s identities to deflect away from the conversation at hand, namely that Qatar is a human rights abuser on an industrial scale that houses a religious-centred culture at odds with everything Cancel Culture claims to stand for. Qatar is making concessions to guests through gritted teeth that it does not afford its people.

The cold reality is that there’s too much money involved to care about pesky things like common human rights standards.

‘There has been so much negative coverage focusing on labour rights and human rights. The running of the World Cup is the only opportunity that Qatar sees for redemption,’ or so said Mar Owen Jones in Reuters. Of course, Qatar could always try redeeming itself by fixing labour laws and changing its social and religious philosophy to reflect the 21st century.

A soccer match, however expensive, cannot erase Qatar’s sins.

If the West said it was going to ‘fix its history of slavery by hosting a football match’ the third-world wouldn’t be particularly impressed.

Since we have entered an era of extorting money out of the West via emotional blackmail, whether that be ‘Climate Change’ or perceived historical ills, the West is perfectly entitled to turn the microscope back around on its accusers. When this happens, not only will the public discover that the third-world’s history is just as dark (if not more so), it’s present-day conditions are pretty abysmal.

Qatar is running the hypocrisy line because the accusations levelled at its leadership are true and in order to address them, Qatar would have to open a public conversation validating its behaviour – as it has no intention of offending its devout religious leaders by changing.

‘What about us, who have lived in Doha for years and made Doha queer. What happens when the World Cup is over? Does the focus on the rights stop?’ asked one gay Arab man.

Homosexuality remains illegal – and a soccer match is not going to change it. There are plenty who rightfully say we should leave politics out of sport – but politics is in sport – as far as powerful clubs are concerned. If that is to be the case, can we at least get some intellectual consistency?

We saw Australian football players destroyed by the media for refusing to wear a Pride jumper, so what is the Australian soccer team doing competing in a nation that outlaws homosexuality entirely? Was the money and prestige simply too good to worry about virtue signalling? And what of Qatar’s other terrible sin – that of being a rich oil nation that makes most of its money from fossil fuels? How does that fit with Australia’s current obsession with demonising any industry that so much as looks at a carbon atom?

As far as anyone can tell, ‘caring’ about human rights is a political weapon wielded for domestic political purposes and nothing more. The behaviour of clubs and the sporting elite is that of a class trying to walk the line of moral superiority while dipping their toes into the undercurrent of tainted cash and fame.

Meanwhile, Qatar has spent around $220 billion US on the World Cup and they’ll be damned if they are going to listen to any sermonising.