RED CARD FOR FIFA BOSS

Gianni defends Qatar in bizarre 'moral lessons' blast at West

- JEREMY ARMSTRONG, ANDY LINES and PATRICK HILL

FIFA President Gianni Infantino faced a furious backlash yesterday over a rant in which he claimed he knew how it felt to be gay and disabled in Qatar.

On the eve of the most controversial World Cup in history, he blasted the West for “hypocrisy” in condemning the country’s human rights record.

But fans, politicians and human rights groups quickly gave HIM a red card.

In an extraordinary hour-long tirade, he compared childhood bullying due to his ginger hair to the suffering of migrant workers and the LGBT+ community in a country where homosexuality is illegal.

Infantino earns around £2.5million a year – compared to a reported 82p an hour for migrant workers in Qatar. Some 6,500 are feared to have died in construction projects there since 2011, with 37 deaths directly linked to stadium works.

But Italian Infantino told 400 journalists: “Today I have strong feelings. Today I feel Qatari, I feel Arab, I feel African, I feel gay, I feel disabled, I feel a migrant worker.