{"id":40764,"date":"2026-07-27T14:12:25","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T12:12:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=40764"},"modified":"2026-07-27T14:12:25","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T12:12:25","slug":"fifa-president-accuses-world-cup-critics-of-spreading-hate-in-open-letter","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/fifa-president-accuses-world-cup-critics-of-spreading-hate-in-open-letter\/","title":{"rendered":"FIFA President accuses World Cup critics of spreading hate in open letter"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) President Gianni Infantino has hit back at critics of \u200bthe World Cup, accusing them of spreading hate and false narratives while defending the tournament as a success \u200cthat celebrated unity, safety and inclusion.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">In an open letter published on Monday, Infantino, 56, said detractors had overlooked the joy and togetherness experienced by millions of fans around the world who witnessed the tournament, won by Spain and staged across the United States, Canada and Mexico.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">&#8220;You were \u200bso consumed by hate and criticism that you missed it all,&#8221; he said.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">&#8220;To those behind their pens \u200band papers, behind their screens spreading hate and false rumours, I want to say that \u2060while you are sitting behind, we at FIFA are on the front lines organising, working hard, and delivering the \u200bbest show in the world.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">&#8220;We experienced no violence, no incidents, 100% safety and security, only joy and happiness.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">FIFA faced criticism \u200bover a number of issues during the tournament, including debate over US visa restrictions affecting supporters and officials from several countries and concerns involving teams from conflict-hit regions.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":15353,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[78,20],"class_list":["post-40764","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"FIFA President Gianni Infantino has hit back at critics of \u200bthe World Cup","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/40764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/40764\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40771,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/40764\/revisions\/40771"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=40764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}