Australian Captain Craig Foster Criticizes FIFA: I Informed them about Political Danger on Al-Araibi ..It’s Time for Infantino to do his Job

2019-02-09 - 8:54 م

Bahrain Mirror (Exclusive): The Australian captain Craig Foster criticized FIFA's response on Hakeem Al-Araibi case.

He said via his Twitter account "I have informed Fatma Samoura, FIFA Secretary-General, about the level of cooperation between Thailand and Bahrain." Foster indicated that "She [Fatma Samoura] is fully aware of the political danger this kid [Al-Araibi] is in and is accountable to do the utmost"

Foster noted that he hasn't seen any movement as expected so far, not even anything close, stressing that it is time for Infantino to do his job.

Many people responded to Foster's tweet questioning the reason behind Infantino's silence, as well as the reason that would push a person who had worked in the United Nations, referring to Fatma Samoura, not respond to the case.

The British "The Telegraph" newspaper confirmed that Infantino faces no challenger in FIFA presidency.

In an article entitled "World counts on FIFA boss Gianni Infantino to save imprisoned refugee Bahrain footballer Hakeem Al-Araibi" the newspaper said that Infantino's would be an interesting stance, because when it came to his election in 2016, the testimony of Al-Araibi and others on Sheikh Salman was one of the few issues in the now all-powerful FIFA president's favour.

Infantino won FIFA presidency in 2016, meanwhile, Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa's dreams faded away. Abdulhadi Khalaf, Sociology teacher at Lund University, said Al Khalifa lost because "the world saw him as part of a repressive authority that chase his victims" after several testimonies by Hakeem Al-Araibi and others about Al Khalifa's involvement in torturing athletes who were detained over their participation in the February 2011 protests.

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