FIFA’s president, Gianni Infantino, is receiving heavy backlash following his comment on Wednesday that hosting the World Cup every two years can assist in saving the lives of Africans migrating to Europe and dying on the Mediterranean.
Infantino made this controversial statement in France during the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe, a trans-national body dedicated to the support of human rights.
FIFA has faced strong opposition since launching a formal proposal to hold men’s and women’s World cups every two years instead of four.
According to him, “This topic is not about whether we want a World Cup every two years, but about what do we want to do for the future of football.
“We need to find ways to include the whole world to give hope to Africans so that they don’t need to cross the Mediterranean in order to find maybe a better life but, more probably, death in the sea.”
Infantino has argued that organizing the World Cup more frequently will lead to more countries qualifying while also fuelling interest there.
His comments have however received several negative reactions.
Former England player of Nigerian descent, John Fashanu said, “Such a statement is an insult which you don’t expect to hear from someone like him. It is disappointing that it is coming from someone like him who is successful. If he thinks after saying that we Africans are going to let him get away talking like that, that’s not nice.”
A Twitter user said, “Infantino, we all know it’s all about the money, stop making such embarrassing comments. If you really want to help Africans you can increase the scouting network for talents here in Africa. This idea of the biennial World Cup is not acceptable, consider the players, they are not machines.”
