Doha, Qatar - FIFA president Gianni Infantino on Saturday went on a jaw-dropping rant ahead of the 2022 World Cup kick off, lashing out at the "hypocrisy" of Western countries criticizing host Qatar for its many human rights issues.

"For what we Europeans have been doing around the world in the last 3,000 years we should be apologizing for the next 3,000 years before starting to give moral lessons to people," the head of soccer's governing body said in an utterly unhinged speech that lasted nearly an hour.

"How many of these European or Western business companies who earn millions from Qatar, billions, how many of them have addressed migrant workers' rights with the authorities?" he continued.

"None of them, because if you change the legislation it means less profit. But we did, and FIFA generates much less than any of these companies from Qatar."

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The furious defense of the tournament and of Qatar, which has been sharply criticized for its human rights conditions, the deaths of migrant workers, and its treatment of LGBTQ+ people, led Infantino to making some truly astonishing remarks.

He left reporters slack-jawed by opening his monologue saying: "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."

The suggesting that his family's experience as Italian immigrants to Switzerland – as well as having red hair and freckles as a child – gave him an intimate understanding of discrimination.

A reminder: homosexuality is illegal under Islamic Sharia law in Qatar and at least 6,500 migrant workers are estimated to have died since the country was awarded hosting rights in 2010, and laborers from Africa are among the many who have allegedly suffered abuse and exploitation in the run-up to the World Cup.

Ahead of the World Cup, former Qatar international Khalid Salman, one of several ambassadors of the event, called being gay "damage in the mind."

Despite this, Infantino on Saturday insisted that all queer people will be warmly welcome and safe in the country. "Everyone is welcome. This was our requirement and the Qatari state sticks to that requirement."

He did not see any reason for concern after the Qatari state made an abrupt, last-minute U-turn on another FIFA requirement: selling alcoholic beer at World Cup stadiums, which Qatar banned on Friday out of the blue.

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Infantino dismissed suggestions that FIFA lost control of its own tournament following the ban and played down it's importance: "There will be many fan zones where you can buy alcohol in Qatar and fans can simultaneously drink alcohol. I think if for three hours a day you cannot drink a beer, you will survive."

As far as other, far more serious threats to survival, Amnesty International blasted Infantino for brushing aside "legitimate human rights criticisms" with his statements.

"Infantino is dismissing the enormous price paid by migrant workers to make his flagship tournament possible – as well as FIFA’s responsibility for it. Demands for equality, dignity and compensation cannot be treated as some sort of culture war," said Steve Cockburn, head of economic and social justice.

He added that "if FIFA is to salvage anything from this tournament," it must invest "a significant part of the $6 billion" it will make from the World Cup in a fund to "compensate workers and their families directly."