DOHA: Lingering divisions over FIFA’s decision to hold the World Cup in Qatar overshadowed the annual congress of football’s world governing body on Thursday, forcing its president Gianni Infantino to insist that the event had already brought change to the Arab state.
Just 235 days from the start of the first World Cup in the Middle East, a rare female voice in international football stood up at the congress to state that awarding the event to Qatar 12 years ago had been “unacceptable” because of its human rights record.
Lise Klaveness, head of the Norwegian football association, said FIFA had to act as a “role model” over human rights and other moral issues such as…
