On Saturday, November 19th, in a stunning display of small mindedness that shocked journalists and spectators alike, FIFA president Gianni Infantino of Switzerland, sat down at a press conference and said this, not 24 hours before the opening whistle. “Today, I  have very strong feelings. 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.” Now, when someone who isn’t any of these things says something so gloriously outrageous as this in an attempt to please the host nation of Qatar and take the world’s scrutiny and gaze off the nation, it does nothing more than make him seem narrow-minded, petty, and totally wrong.  

Everyone knows it: FIFA, the sports global governing body, is corrupt. That goes without saying. Rumors flew when, in 2010, both Russia and Qatar were named World Cup Hosts for 2018 and 2022 respectively. After the decisions had been made, an investigation by the U.S Department of Justice confirmed that there had been an increasing number of paid votes and bribery for the honor of hosting the sports most prestigious tournament. But the damage had already been done; Seph Blatter, FIFA’s president at the time, named Russia and Qatar as World Cup hosts. In recent years, he has come out saying that it was a mistake, although it’s unclear whether he actually means what he is saying, or if he is just trying to make life more miserable for current president Gianni Infantino, as they absolutely despise each other. 

But the investigations into the corrupt voting wasn’t in vain. Although they could not overturn the decision, it led to a series of arrests of top FIFA officials and, most surprisingly, an 8 year ban of former FIFA president Seph Blatter from any FIFA event. A quote from the New York Times sums this up: “Prosecutors made the accusations in an indictment charging three media executives and a sports marketing company with a number of crimes, including wire fraud and money laundering, in connection with bribes to secure television and marketing rights for international soccer tournaments.” 

FIFA has made it very clear that it does not want politics to be involved in World Cup 2022, and it has gone to great measures to ensure it. FOX Sports, the news channel that holds the broadcasting rights to all games and ceremonies, announced it will focus solely on the action happening on the field, and not what is happening off. This may be partially due to the fact that FOX Sports is sponsored and paid for by Qatar Airways, and that the ‘expert’ assigned to commentate the opening ceremonies was a Qatari influencer who runs a blog by the name ‘I Love Qatar’. How fishy does that sound?   

But politics is part of soccer, it’s part of the game. Players have been known to voice their political opinion on and off the field. They stand up for what they think is right, and they often use their platform and fame to make their voices heard. So, when no one really started to take a stand against Qatar hosting the World Cup until March of 2021, fans started to grumble – until one Dutch press conference that started it all. 

In March, Netherland’s legendary coach, Louis Van Gaal, sat down at a press conference where he was asked about the World Cup in Qatar. Van Gaal, age 71, went off, saying, “I think it’s ridiculous that the World Cup is there. We’re playing in a country that FIFA says they want to develop football there. That’s bullshit, but it doesn’t matter. It’s about money, about commercial interest. That matters in FIFA.” 

After this, fans started turning to their teams and federations, asking what they were planning to do. The overall message from teams and federations was that they knew the World Cup was in Qatar, they knew that it was problematic, and that they were thinking of things to do, but it would take a little bit of time. Teams promised fans that they were going to do more than just “wear a t-shirt”, which has become the universal way that footballers show support. Their brilliant idea: have the captains of 9 European countries wear an armband during their games, reading “One Love” in support of the Anti-Descrimination campaign. Hosts of the podcast, World Corrupt,  Roger Bennett and Tommy Vietor, expressed their displeasure of this extremely non-threatening, rather small action. “It’s a nice gesture for an incredibly worthy cause, but the Captain’s armband, it just sort of rests on their bicep for a nation that promised, remember, more than a t-shirt. They ended up with something that is quite literally less than a bloody t-shirt.” 

This didn’t sit well with fans who weren’t convinced that a single armband, worn by a single player, was enough to make up for the thousands of lives lost in the build up to the World Cup, as well as Qatar’s views on same-sex relationships. 

But some countries did come up with effective ways of voicing their opinions. The athletic brand Hummel, who make jerseys for the Danish National Team, produced a monochrome uniform with the country’s crest and the sponsor nearly invisible. They also released a third, all black jersey that they said will represent the color of mourning for the thousands of migrant workers who lost their lives while building the World Cup stadiums. 

Back the armbands. While fans were pushing for their countries to take more action, FIFA disagreed. A couple months before the World Cup, every country must submit exactly what they are going to wear during the tournament for FIFA for review. The armbands were submitted in September before the tournament, and none of the federations heard back from FIFA until the night before England were set to play Iran in their opening match. FIFA announced that it would immediately yellow card any player wearing an armband before the match. With the threat of a yellow card, country after country wilted, agreeing to wear the FIFA approved armbands with slogans including but not limited to, “bring the moves” and “share the meal”. No, I’m not joking. 

Fans and players alike were unhappy with this decision. Fans were mad at the players and teams for backing down so easily, saying that human rights are bigger than a yellow card, and teams and federations were angry at FIFA for silencing them and not giving them enough time to come up with another solution. 

So when Germany, who has historically spoken out against FIFA, marched out on the field in their opening match against Japan, and went to take their pre-match photo, each German player covered their mouths with their hand to show that they had been silenced.   

So FIFA doesn’t like politics when it comes to the players, fans, and federations, but when it comes to president Gianni Infantino, FIFA is fully supportive.

On November 15th, 2022, the G20 summit took place in Bali, Indonesia. Once a year, 19 of the world’s biggest economies and the UN meet together to discuss major economic issues. This year’s topic: Ukraine. 

Gianni Infantino made a surprise appearance at the G20 Summit this year, how he got an invitation is unclear. He made a short, 4 minute speech, where he called for a cease fire between Russia and Ukraine. His speech was met with strong backlash mostly due to the fact that Infantino had developed a strong friendship with Russian president Vladimir Putin after the 2018 World Cup in Russia, even receiving the Order of Friendship medal from Putin, which he has refused to return. He spends four minutes telling the world’s largest economies why football can change the world, and brings people together. In other words, he wasted a whole four minutes talking about absolutely nothing. 

So why should you care? Because this isn’t something that should be overlooked. For the next 30 days, the world’s eyes will be trained on 22 players and not on the incredibly tense dark side of the World Cup. But at the end of the day, I’m still going to wake up at 6:00am every morning to watch the early game. I’m still going to secretly watch games under the table in school. Because despite the controversial hosting bid, the silenced players, FIFA’s corruption and controversial connections and decisions, the soccer is still amazing. So, as you watch the World Cup and cheer for your favorite teams, I encourage you to keep in mind the things that happen behind the scenes.