🚨🗣️New: Thierry Henry reacts to the Brazil, Morocco, and Netherlands press conferences, where questions in Spanish were reportedly not permitted for Hakimi, Vinícius Jr., and Frenkie de Jong: “I have covered World Cups for years, and this situation makes absolutely no sense to me. You’re telling me a World Cup co-hosted by Mexico can stop journalists from asking questions in Spanish? That’s like hosting a Formula 1 race and banning cars from using their engines. We saw it with Hakimi. We saw it with Vinícius. Now we’re hearing similar stories involving Frenkie de Jong. The players understood the questions. The journalists spoke one of the most widely spoken languages on the planet. Yet somehow the language became the problem. Gianni Infantino talks about inclusion, diversity, and bringing football to everyone. Fine. Then explain this contradiction. How can FIFA celebrate diversity in every promotional video and then create headlines because Spanish journalists are being told to switch languages at a tournament hosted by Mexico? Spanish isn’t some obscure dialect spoken by a handful of people. It’s the language of hundreds of millions across the Americas and beyond. If a journalist from Mexico, Spain, Argentina, Colombia, or anywhere else asks a question in Spanish and the player understands it, why is football creating barriers where none existed? The irony is unbelievable. FIFA keeps telling us football belongs to everyone, but this controversy has many fans asking whether some voices are more welcome than others. Maybe there’s a logistical explanation. Maybe it’s a translation issue. But perception matters. And right now the perception is terrible. Because what fans are seeing is simple: a World Cup hosted partly by a Spanish-speaking nation, players who understand Spanish, journalists who speak Spanish, and officials telling them not to use Spanish. If that’s progress, somebody needs to explain it better. Because from the outside, it looks like football’s governing body is tripping over its own message.” “FIFA wanted a celebration of diversity. Instead, they’ve handed the internet a controversy that won’t stop being discussed.”