Major French cities to boycott Qatar World Cup. this Town halls of Paris, Marseille, Strasbourg or Lille they won’t install giant screens or areas for fans during the World Cup, which will be held from 20 November to 18 December. These towns with left-wing municipal governments took this decision to express their rejection of a competition punctuated by work accidents and the energy and environmental waste from air-conditioned stadiums. Of course, this announcement is not insignificant in a country like France, which is the current world champion and enjoys bleus matches with enthusiasm.
“We did not consider creating match broadcasting zones for various reasons: Firstly, the conditions for holding this World Cup, as well as environmental as well as socialPierre Rabadan, Member of Parliament for Sports in the French capital, which will organize the 2024 Olympic Games, said on Monday night. This mayor admitted that the fact that the tournament took place between the end of November and December, when the cold did not invite watching the games on the giant screens, was another factor that contributed to this decision.
“I have the impression that if Bordeaux were to host these spaces for fans, this sporting event would be an all-encompassing accomplice. human, ecological and sports deviationsBordeaux Mayor, environmentalist Pierre Hurmic, stated that he would have taken the same action had the tournament been held in the summer. “This competition has become a human and environmental disaster that is increasingly incompatible with our values,” added the City Council of a city that loves football as much as Marseille. Since the 2020 municipal elections, almost all major French towns red-green coalitions, with socialist or ecologist mayors. And now they are acting in the same sense regarding this question.
Government and Federation against boycott
on the other hand government Emmanuel Macron and the French Football Federation (FFF) is against the boycott. “I don’t think the fact of boycotting the World Cup has changed much in terms of carbon dioxide emissions,” said Energy Transition Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher, who in September harshly criticized PSG for its private plane trips. Towns near Paris. “We are not hypocrites, on the contrary, we think this World Cup could be a good option for progress,” FFF vice-president Philippe Diallo said on Tuesday.
Although they justified the competition, those responsible for Gallic football, Amnesty International One of the FIFA fund to compensate migrant workers, many from Southeast Asia, built stadiums and infrastructure for the World Cup. They did it with appalling working conditions, close to slavery. According to opaque official data from Qatar, only three workers died during construction. But other independent organizations point to much higher numbers. According to a report by the International Labor Organization (ILO), 50 people were killed and 500 injured in 2020. The British newspaper The Guardian reported that more than 6,500 migrant workers have been killed since the World Cup awarded to the Emirate at the end of 2010. .
Social, ecological and moral debates
In a model that blends savage capitalism with traditionalism and conservatism, the workers who built the stadiums were subjected not only to the exploitation of low wages and endless working hours, but also to the deprivation of immigrants of their customary freedom in Qatar. take away their passport when they sign a contract. Add to this the environmental impact of a competition with air-conditioned stadiums or airfields. 160 daily flights This will bring fans to Doha.
This social, ecological and moral debate – see the recent incident about the alleged torture of Nasser Al-Khelaïfi – has spurred more and more voices to boycott the World Cup or “bring the Cup back to reason” with compensation measures. Dedicated football player in France, a country particularly connected to the fabric of Qatar’s sports geopolitics Eric Canton He said that he would watch the Columbo series instead of football players chasing the ball on the top of the corpse mountains. Celebrities will do the same. actor Vincent Lindon. Local newspaper Le Quotidien de la Réunion announced that it would not be reporting on the competition. A campaign where major cities are now participating.