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Infantino Issues Blistering Response to Criticism of Qatar World Cup.

Gianni Infantino said he feels gay. That he feels like a woman. That he feels like a migrant worker. He lectured Europeans for criticizing Qatar’s human rights record and defended the host country’s last-minute decision to ban beer from World Cup stadiums.

The FIFA president delivered a one-hour tirade on the eve of the World Cup’s opening match, and then spent about 45 minutes answering questions from media about the Qatari government’s actions and a wide range of other topics.

“Today I feel Qatari,” Infantino said at the start of his first news conference of the World Cup. “Today I feel Arab. Today I feel African. Today I feel gay. Today I feel disabled. Today I feel a migrant worker.”

Infantino defended the country’s immigration policy, and praised the government for bringing in migrants to work.

“We in Europe, we close our borders and we don’t allow practically any worker from those countries, who earn obviously very low income, to work legally in our countries,” Infantino said. “If Europe would really care about the destiny of these people, these young people, then Europe could also do as Qatar did.

“But give them some work. Give them some future. Give them some hope. But this moral-lesson giving, one-sided, it is just hypocrisy.”

In response to his comments, human rights group Amnesty International said Infantino was “brushing aside legitimate human rights criticisms” by dismissing the price paid by migrant workers to make the tournament possible and FIFA’s responsibility for it.