The Western hypocrisy? Glaring instances which might prove FIFA president Gianni Infantino right

The FIFA World Cup 2022 edition finally kicked off in Qatar on November 20. While the mega event was eagerly awaited, a lot of things have made the headlines off the field en route to the tournament's commencement. A lot has been said and written about Qatar's human rights violations and many have slammed the Middle East country, with ex-FIFA President Sepp Blatter also admitting that it was a mistake to award the hosting rights to a country like Qatar.

Nonetheless, the West's reporting of Qatar has made heads turn at regular intervals prior to the FIFA WC's opener. It is to be noted that the BBC relegated the FIFA World Cup openingceremony to the "Red Button" service and online. However, BBC One went ahead by not airing the ceremony live by maintaining its stance on Qatar's orthodox viewpoint on the LGBTQ community and notorious history of human rights violations.

Is it Western hypocrisy?

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FIFA President Gianni Infantino recently slammed the West's reporting and said in his first press conference in Doha ahead of the World Cup,"This moral lesson-giving -- one-sided -- is just hypocrisy. I don't want to give you any lessons of life, but what is going on here is profoundly, profoundly unjust." He added, "For what we Europeans have been doing for the last 3,000 years we should apologise for the next 3,000 years before starting to give moral lessons to people."

"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," said the FIFA president said while defending Qatar.

It isn't a hidden fact how many Western countries have also been a part of the problem, showing their dominance over developing or poorer countries as well as incidents of racism, slavery, etc. being highlighted for one and all.

It is known that England is taking a knee with regard to supporting the Black Lives Matter movement in the Qatar World Cup. In September 2020, former West Indies pacer Michael Holding slammed England and Australia for choosing when to take a knee. After the West Indies tour of England, where both teams took a knee before proceedings, the then Joe Root-led England didn't take a knee in their following home series versus Pakistan and Australia. Back then, Holding blasted at England Cricket Board (ECB) and Australian captain Aaron Finch while speaking his heart out in Sky Sports.

Holding told, "Now that the West Indies team has gone home, that doesn't mean that you still shouldn't be respecting the message and exactly what it stands for. If you go back to when taking a knee started and what it stood for, or stands for, it goes back to Colin Kaepernick in America, who took a knee because he wanted to bring attention to the racism and police brutality against people of colour in that country. Yes, it is more acute in the United States than in most other places but people around the entire world took on the mantle of spreading the word and getting this message out that it is time for equality and time for equal justice, and all that."

The former pacer said, "So everybody, all over the world, whether you are black, white, brown, pink or green - you saw the demonstrations all over the world. It was no longer just a black versus white thing; it was a matter of humanity coming together and saying 'listen, we need everyone to be treated equally.So for Pakistan and England not to then take that signal - because you are not doing anything other than going down on one knee - you are not chanting anything, you are not saying anything, all you are doing is making a signal to keep the awareness going. Neither team did it and the ECB came out with a pretty lame statement, as far as I am concerned."

The question to be asked here is how come the England football team is taking a knee -- when they do it selectively in Premier League fixtures -- during Qatar World Cup but their senior men's cricket team didn't during their Pakistan tour, T20 World Cup, etc.

Is the West trying to make a statement in Qatar or just adding fuel to fire in a country which already has a troubled history with many human right issues?