Swiss International Federation president Gianni Infantino has expressed his dissatisfaction with criticism he received for what was described as his lack of “respect” for the occasion after taking a selfie at Pele’s funeral on Monday.
“Shocked to hear that some seem to criticize me for taking selfies and photos during the ceremony,” Infantino wrote on Instagram. He added: “I have a lot of respect and admiration for Pele and for the ceremony and I wouldn’t have dared to do anything that could be disrespectful.”
In addition to Infantino, who was holding his cell phone to take the picture, under the large white tent, which houses Pele’s coffin, there were three people, including Manuel Maria, one of Pele’s close friends.
“I was honored and moved that my colleagues and Pelé’s large family asked me to take a picture with them,” added Infantino. “Pele’s team asked me to take a selfie of all of us, but they didn’t know how. To help, I grabbed someone’s phone and took a picture of all of us.”
The body of Brazilian football legend Pelé arrived at its final resting place on Tuesday, in a huge cemetery in the city of Santos overlooking the stadium, which was attended by more than 230,000 people from all over Brazil in a solemn farewell to the player who many consider the greatest in the history of the round ball.
The Brazilian people’s final tribute to the “king” concluded with a four-hour procession through the streets of the coastal city 75 kilometers from São Paulo where Pele was buried in the tallest vertical cemetery in the world, according to the Guinness Book of Records . During Pele’s funeral, more than 230,000 people attended his open funeral, which lasted more than 24 hours.
