FIFA president, Gianni Infantino, has come under heavy backlash from Nigerians following his comments on Wednesday that hosting the World Cup can help save the lives of Africans migrating to Europe and dying on the Mediterranean, The PUNCH reports.
Infantino made the statement at the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe, a trans-national body dedicated to the support of human rights.
While defending the federation’s proposal of hosting the World Cup every two years, Infantino suggested that a biennial world football showpiece could stop African migrants from “dying in the sea.”
“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,” Infantino was quoted as saying by The Guardian, a UK publication.
“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.”
The FIFA boss’ statement sparked reactions from Nigerians, who hit out at the 51-year-old for making such a derogating statement about Africans.
Former England player of Nigerian descent, John Fashanu, told The PUNCH, “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.”
“It is preposterous to think that his idea will put an end to the menace of migration,” Boyowa Samuel responded on Twitter.
“The constant deaths on the sea are really disturbing but Mr Infantino is only using it as a means to appeal to our emotions. I’m sure he’s aware that that’s not the solution we need.”
Azu Daniel also wrote on his Twitter handle, “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.”
Another Twitter user @afr_andza wrote, “How will the World Cup help us as Africans? Politics only will save us. We have to mobilize and renegotiate our place in the world. We can’t be Europe’s charity cases after they extract all our minerals and pay us in aid, not the world cup. You can have it.”
Adelekan Adeolu added, “I don’t want to curse this morning, let me just read it without a reply.”
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