Berhalter criticizes Infantino: "World Cup can help bring awareness”

After earlier urging participating sides to "focus on football", FIFA president

Infantino

caused controversies again as he accused the Western world of hypocrisy, saying:

"Today, I feel Qatari. Today, I feel Arab. Today, I feel African. Today, I feel gay. Today, I feel disabled. Today, I feel [like] a migrant worker."

Although the

head coach insisted they are in Qatar for football reasons, indicated his opposition to the FIFA president.

"

He's the president of FIFA and expresses his opinions as he sees fit,"

Berhalter

said in a press conference on Sunday.

"We're here to play soccer, we're here to represent the United States and we don't necessarily represent the views of Infantino.

"That's the way it goes. He has the right to express that and we have the right to our opinions."

On

and controversies around it, he added:

"It's starting with the individual, and understanding every individual has a right or an obligation to promote change on their own level. That's something we've focused on as a group, a federation and as a team.

"I think the campaign has been successful. We started educating the players about 18 months ago about what’s going on in Qatar – from my perspective there's been some positive things and there's still also some work to do.

"This World Cup can help bring awareness to some of that, and that's why I think we're right in line with trying to bring attention to some of the issues here."

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