No, the winner, and by a lot, was the blather spewed out by the head of the International Federation of Association Football, Gianni Infantino, to justify…well, to mitigate…well, to throw up so much dust that the general disgust at the World Cup being held in Qatar might be forgotten, or at least controlled.

All of the international sports organizations are corrupt, FIFA being among the worst. The soccer organization must have reaped quite a bonanza to take the World Cup to Qatar, which is a miserable human rights abuser, different but almost as despicable as China, where the Olympics allowed those champions of slavery, oppression and pandemic-launching to use the Games as a propaganda platform, just like Adolf in 1936. (The United States should have refused to “play” in both instances.) At a press conference last week, Infantino, defended Qatar against those condemning the Muslim nation for its treatment of immigrants, gays and women, with a flood of terrible analogies, excuses and rationalizations, saying in part:

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 I feel this, all this, because what I’ve been seeing and what I’ve been told, since I don’t read, otherwise I would be depressed I think. Of course, I am not Qatari, Arab, gay or disabled. But I was the son of a migrant worker, saw their conditions. Not in Qatar, but Switzerland. What I’ve seen brings me back to my personal story. I am a son of migrant workers. My parents were working very very hard in difficult situations. I know what it means to be discriminated and bullied as a foreigner in a foreign country. As a child, I was bullied because I had red hair and freckles. I was bullied for that…. We need to invest in education, to give them a better future, to give them hope. We should all educate ourselves. Reform and change takes time. It took hundreds of years in our countries in Europe. It takes time everywhere, the only way to get results is by engaging […] not by shouting…For what we Europeans have been doing in the last 3,000 years around the world we should be apologizing for [the] next 3,000 years before starting to give moral lessons.

• Later, he also said he felt like a woman. At least he didn’t sing, “I feel pretty!”
• Yes, he really compared Qatar to Switzerland.
• Says Tom Rogan of the Washington Examiner: “Infantino believes that being bullied as a red-headed child with freckles is the same as thousands of migrant workers dying of heat exhaustion after being denied sufficient rest or water. He believes his freckle trauma is the same as a gay person fearing imprisonment or worse for holding hands with one’s partner at a World Cup.” No, he doesn’t believe that; he just is throwing anything he can think of out there, hoping that it might stick. 
• Ah, the old “Let he who is without sin…” dodge (Rationalization #6)! Going back into the past for the “we were just as bad once” (a variation on Rationalization #2) excuse essentially means that current day misconduct will be judged and measured by past standards that long ago were found lacking, which makes no sense at all.  Society is supposed to become more ethical over time, with increased experience, wisdom and reflection. This is 2022, and Qatar (among other ethically stunted nations) behaves like it’s the Dark Ages.

The concept is simple, or should be. Countries that want to be full participants in world games, parties and celebrations also need to meet certain minimal standards of civilization. Otherwise, all they have as a defense is utter rhetorical nonsense like what Infantino offered.