PARIS. Paris and 7 other large French cities will boycott the World Cup in November and December in Qatar in their own way, not installing – as has become tradition – giant screens and fan zones in the streets and public squares, as a sign of protest against violations of rights human and environmental rules. “For our part – declared the councilor for Sport of the capital, Pierre Rabadan – we are not talking about creating broadcasting areas for matches. And for several reasons: the first is the conditions in which this World Cup was organized, both from an environmental and social point of view; the second is the timing, the fact that it takes place in December.
For Rabadan, “this model of major events goes against what Paris hopes to organize”. Marseille, Bordeaux, Nancy and Reims today joined the list of French cities that will refuse, for humanitarian and ecological reasons, to promote World Cup matches in Qatar, following the example of Strasbourg and Lille.
The socialist mayor of Marseille, Benoit Payan, called the competition a “human and environmental catastrophe”, while the mayor of Lille, also a socialist, Martine Aubry, denounced “nonsense with respect to human rights, the environment and sport”. Among the reasons for the boycott, the treatment of immigrant workers and the number of deaths in the construction sites for the construction of the eight stadiums of the World Cup. If the official toll speaks of only 3 deaths, the World Labor Organization recorded, in a report, the deaths of 50 workers in as many accidents at work in 2020. Another 500 were seriously injured.
For the mayor of Reims, Arnaud Robinet, “while the public authorities are asking to reduce the consumption of energy, those plants arouse a legitimate misunderstanding for one of the most controversial events in the history of sport”.