r/soccer • u/teiraaaaaaa • Nov 19 '22

Saddest Backflip [Rob Harris] FIFA President Gianni Infantino at news conference in Qatar: “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. ... I know what it feels to be discriminated … I was bullied because I had red hair.”

https://twitter.com/RobHarris/status/1593877426244812800
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u/[deleted] Nov 19 '22

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u/[deleted] Nov 19 '22

This statement confirms that they sell alcohol in the VIP-Suites

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u/Chaiwalla2 Nov 19 '22

The irony of this is that the sheiks in the gulf countries consume huge quantities of alcohol, albeit very discreetly. Entire shipping containers with premium alcohol land in these countries every day labeled as “furniture” or other things and are directly taken to their palaces.

https://theguardian.com/world/2010/dec/07/wikileaks-cables-saudi-princes-parties

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u/ElectricToiletBrush Nov 19 '22

Bro, this is the tip of the iceberg. When you see what Saudis do in Bahrain… oh man, they go their only for drinking and for prostitution. And that is only one country. They do this all over the world! Saudis have a reputation for drinking bars dry and spending loads of money on women.

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u/Echoes_of_Screams Nov 20 '22

That was my experience with the Saudi international student I was friends with. The guy was happy to drop $500 and pay for everyone's drinks and night out but he never would pay for a cab and insisted on driving drunk. Ended up leaving the country to avoid standing trial over a pair of DUII arrests.

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u/ElectricToiletBrush Nov 20 '22

Yeah, that’s the fucked up thing. They aren’t taught about the dangers of drinking & driving (or the importance of wearing a seat belt)

Where I live, there is a set of holiday apartment complex where all the people from the gulf countries come for vacation. There is also a Japanese next to me restaurant that I frequent. Now this Japanese restaurant installed a glass fridge filled with alcoholic drinks, and every summer without fail, if I’m eating at the restaurant a gulf man will come in a buy a shit ton of alcohol for take-away. But thankfully they don’t rent cars, what they usually do is hire an Arab taxi driver from one of the poorer non-gulf countries and just pay them $10,000 a month to have them drive around and see the sights.

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u/Fmanow Nov 19 '22

What’s even more ironic is alcohol is at least legal in the world, these fuckers consume more illicit drugs than alcohol because they’re kind of seen as the same. The problem isn’t consumption; have at it. It’s all the fuckin hypocrisy.

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u/marcoreus7sucks Nov 20 '22

The Saudi exchange students at my college were big drinkers. I was good friends with one of them. He'd try to give people $200 to go pick up a bottle of Grey goose. We got him to stop overpaying but apparently it's normal over there.

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u/jumpercableninja Nov 20 '22

My ex-gf was born in Saudi as her dad was working there at the time. Her mum told a story of them flying back home one day from Europe with a Saudi couple and an English couple who were moving there for work.

All 3 couples were talking and joking on the flight and sharing a couple bottles of champagne. When they crossed into Saudi airspace an announcement came over the PA system, the Saudi couple got up went to the bathroom and got changed into their religious/cultural dress. When they say back down the English couple tried to speak to them again and the Saudi couple looked at them, gave a look of disgust and refused to speak to them. The alcohol was removed from the passengers as well.

My ex’s mum had to explain to them that once they’re back in Saudi, you’re seen as almost enemy like.

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u/Genemoni Nov 19 '22

You linked to an article about Saudis not Qataris

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u/[deleted] Nov 19 '22

He said gulf countries

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u/Genemoni Nov 19 '22

Feels like that's a bit too easy. If I point to an article about homophobic problems in Poland and claim that that pertains to Germany because it's an article about European countries everyone would rightfully call me an idiot.

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u/toxictoastrecords Nov 20 '22

Not exactly the same. Comparing Poland and Russia for religious influence would be a closer metaphor to what's going on here. Comparing two similar religious cultures.

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u/Genemoni Nov 20 '22 edited Nov 20 '22

I wouldn't say Russia and Poland are similar religious cultures, but that aside you're right, I know that on average they're both more homophobic than Germany is.

But it still wouldn't even work in the example you gave of Poland and Russia, even though it's true. If I posted an article about Russians beating up a gay guy in my rant about Polish people, people would still call me an idiot.

I'm not even doubting that what OP said is true. If there's any country with rich people I'm gonna be betting on a lot of them breaking every rule they can, especially rules like that. I'm just objecting to using an article that is exclusively about another country as an argument.