"Just as bad as feared": Human rights activist demands: "End the Infantino system"

FIFA promises that the World Cup will improve the human rights situation in Qatar. However, Human Rights Watch drew a devastating conclusion at the end of the tournament: “The World Cup went just as badly as feared,” say the human rights activists. And call on the major associations to act.

For Wenzel Michalski, Germany director of Human Rights Watch, the human rights situation in Qatar has not improved even remotely as a result of the soccer World Cup. “FIFA and the Qatari government have not moved an inch. Everyone who said that the direction in the country would lead to something good and push reforms was wrong,” Michalski said in an interview with “Welt am Sonntag”: “A stubborn blockhead like FIFA has teamed up with another stubborn blockhead like Qatar, they don’t care about people’s rights at all.”

Michalski’s socio-political conclusion of the tournament is therefore: “The World Cup went just as badly as feared.” The members of the world football association FIFA would have to “draw consequences” from this and work on a “profound change in the organization”.

In doing so, the human rights activist held the European associations responsible, which he believed had to work towards “ending the Infantino system”. Under the leadership of the Swiss, FIFA is “a corrupt organization geared towards preserving abuse of power”. Michalski doesn’t have much hope that things will change: “Unfortunately there are still too many followers around the world who are dependent on FIFA’s money pot.” FIFA President Gianni Infantino, on the other hand, drew a very positive conclusion from the World Cup on Friday. In the presidential election in March 2023, Infantino will be elected unopposed to his third term.

The Islamic scholar Dr. Sebastian Sons, who researches at the CARPO Institute in Bonn, had warned RTL/ntv before the tournament that the situation for people from the LGBTIQ community in the country could even worsen after the World Cup in Qatar. “If the World Cup spotlight goes away, then the local government will no longer have to do justice to an international audience,” said Sons, explaining: “That’s why I’m afraid that people, especially from the LGBTIQ community, will have bigger problems because identity politics simply plays a very important role in the Gulf States.”