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FIFA urges World Cup participants to ‘focus on the football’ amid continued Qatar controversy.
In a letter to World Cup participants, FIFA President Gianni Infantino and Secretary General Fatma Samoura pleaded with them to “let football take center stage.”
The highest-ranking FIFA officials have urged the competing teams in Qatar to “focus on football” and avoid getting engaged “in every ideological or political battle that exists.”
The letter also emphasized the significance of respect for one another and the absence of discrimination, which are thought to be the sport’s fundamental principles.
“Please, let’s now focus on the football! We know football does not live in a vacuum and we are equally aware that there are many challenges and difficulties of a political nature all around the world,” FIFA President Infantino and Samoura wrote in their letter to the 32 teams.
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“At FIFA, we try to respect all opinions and beliefs, without handing out moral lessons to the rest of the world. One of the great strengths of the world is indeed its very diversity, and if inclusion means anything, it means having respect for that diversity.
They added: “No one people or culture or nation is ‘better’ than any other. This principle is the very foundation stone of mutual respect and non-discrimination. And this is also one of the core values of football.”
Qatar’s treatment of its migrant workers has sparked controversy across the world. However, the country is still expecting at least 1.2 million international visitors during the World Cup. Three rounds of ticket sales have already been completed and FIFA have stated that they have sold more than 2.45 million tickets.
The FIFA World Cup 2022 will begin on the 20 of November and end on December 18.