World Cup 2022: Gary Neville hits out at FIFA president Gianni Infantino – ‘A terrible face for football’

Gary Neville has slammed Gianni Infantino as “the worst face” to represent football following the FIFA president’s controversial monologue.

He also declared “today I feel gay” and “I feel [like] a migrant worker” before taking aim at European critics of Qatar.

And Neville responded to those comments, suggesting how Infantino could have spoken and calling for greater “independence” at FIFA, the game’s governing body.

“I’ve been all around the world with Manchester United: to the Middle East, the Far East, to Asia, Africa and Australasia and there’s no doubt we should be taking football all around the world,” he told beIN Sports, who he is working for at the World Cup.

“But he’s a terrible face for football, that guy [Infantino]. Some of the things he said yesterday were inappropriate and shouldn’t be said by him.

“He should be statesmanlike, he should be bringing people together, he’s the global representative of football, not answering to one or two nations which he seemed to be doing yesterday.

“He’s got to rise above it.

“Some of his language yesterday about, ‘I’m a migrant worker, I’m disabled’ is an absolute scandal, he shouldn’t be using that type of language. He shouldn’t be using those phrases in my opinion.

“I think FIFA is a poor representation of what football is, which is a beautiful game enjoyed by communities from Brazil to Bury, from Bolivia to Peru, to everywhere. I have to say that FIFA needs to clean up its act.

“It’s been bad for so long and my personal feeling with Infantino is that he’s effectively put himself back into power for four years, there’s no independence.

“We’ve got to have independence and democracy. He elects himself back into position and I think he’s the worst face to represent the Middle East, Arabs, Muslims and the Qatar World Cup.”

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