FIFA President Gianni Infantino said that the World Cup 2022 would bring people together for one month and help dispel some of the misconceptions that still exist about the Middle East.
Speaking by video to the sixth edition of Future Investment Initiative (FII6) in Riyadh, he described the progress of women’s football in Saudi Arabia as “absolutely fantastic” and said that FIFA would continue with its quest to make football truly global.
“This FIFA World Cup 2022 is already having a huge impact on the Middle East,” he said, adding that the tournament, which starts on November 20 and ends on December 18 would provide millions of people with the chance to discover a new part of the world.
“It is also an opportunity for Qatar and the whole Gulf region to present itself to the world in another light and get rid, once and for all, of some of the prejudice that sadly exists,” he said. “It will definitely help get more mutual understanding between people of different cultures and backgrounds, I am convinced of that.”
Infantino said that FIFA had received a record 23 million ticket requests for the World Cup and that three million tickets had been sold.
“We’ll have two million people coming from all over the world and showing the world that humanity can live in peace together,” he said.
He praised the progress of women’s football in Saudi Arabia, where the women’s national team played its first-ever matches this year and which has also staged a national women’s league for the first time. (www.fifa.com)
