Paris has announced it is joining the cities boycotting this year's World Cup in protest. 'Fan zones' and public showings have been vetoed by local authorities across the country.
It's part of a stance against human rights and environmental abuses in the host nation, Qatar. The mayor of Marseilles called the event "incompatible with the values we want to see conveyed through sport and especially football".
Local authorities in Marseille, Lille, Bordeaux, Reims, Nancy, Rodez and now in the capital announced there will be no public television screens to show matches as in previous tournaments. Lille city council unanimously voted against broadcasting the matches, reports The Guardian.
The city mayor, a Socialist called Martine Aubry, said holding the competition in Qatar was “a nonsense in terms of human rights, the environment and sport”.
Benoît Payan, mayor of Marseille who heads up a left-wing and environmentalist coalition, said: “This competition has gradually turned into a human and environmental disaster, incompatible with the values we want to see conveyed through sport and especially football.”
Former French rugby international and deputy in charge of sport at Paris city hall, Pierre Rabadan, said there was “no question” of installing fan zones. The city's football team Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), is itself owned by Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, the Emir of Qatar since 2011.
Strasbourg has also decided not to screen the World Cup. Mayor Jeanne Barseghian told 20 Minutes: “It is impossible for us not to listen to the numerous alerts from NGOs denouncing the abuse and exploitation of immigrant workers. Thousands of foreign workers have died on the building sites, it’s unbearable.
”Strasbourg, the European capital and seat of the European court of human rights, cannot decently condone these abuses, cannot turn a blind eye when human rights are being flouted in this way."
Mayor of Bordeaux Pierre Hurmic said a city screening the event would be “accomplice to this sporting event which represents all the humanitarian, ecological and sporting aberrations”.
Eric Cantona has announced that he will be boycotting the World Cup. The former French international and Manchester United legend said: “I will not watch a single match of this World Cup. This will cost me because since I was a kid it’s been an event that I love, that I look forward to and that I watch with passion.
"But let’s be honest with ourselves. This World Cup makes no sense. The only meaning of this event, as we all know, is money."
The French Football Federation responded last month as critics questioned its “deafening silence”. People have called on them to comment on the forced labour and deaths of migrant workers at World Cup sites.
It said the “campaign of stigmatisation” of Qatar was to be “deplored”, adding: "Taking part in the World Cup doesn’t mean closing one’s eyes and supporting (abuse)."
The FFF claims it has “implemented various verification measures concerning the respect of social rights and the application of respectful working conditions at the French team’s base camp” in Qatar, adding: “Even if the reality on the ground is not perfect, this progress is undeniable and positive.”
