FIFA’s president has apologized to British football fans following a comment that the Football Supporters’ Association labeled as a “cheap joke.”
Gianni Infantino suffered a backlash last month after joking that: “For the first time in history… no Brit was arrested during a World Cup. Imagine! This is something really really special”, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.
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In a wide-ranging interview, Mr Infantino told The World with Yalda Hakim that the comments were “meant to be more of a light-hearted remark” aimed at highlighting that the 2022 Qatar World Cup “was a celebration” and “a peaceful event”.
The FIFA boss firstly apologised to fans from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, saying that offending them was “not my intention”.
He went on to say that: “I’m a huge fan of English football”, adding that he had been wrong to refer to English people who “just go and riot around the world” at football matches as fans, instead referring to them as “criminals”.
Mr Infantino then highlighted and praised efforts made by England to tackle football violence.
“So, whatever we can do to help peace in the world, we should be doing it, and for this reason, for some time we were thinking about [whether] we should do something to reward people who do something.”
Mr Infantino insists that person is Mr Trump, saying that “objectively, he deserves it”.
He then highlights Venezuelan opposition leader Ms Machado’s praise of Mr Trump. “It’s not just Gianni Infantino who said it… [there’s] a Nobel Peace Prize winner who said this.”
“He was instrumental in resolving conflicts and saving lives and saving thousands of lives.”
Mr Infantino praises Mr Trump for getting people on opposite sides of conflict into the same room.
He feels the same thing should happen in international football.
