French cities ditch World Cup festivities to protest Qatar’s record on human rights, environment

It all started in the northeastern French city of Strasbourg last week, when city officials decided to opt out of any celebrations supporting the world’s largest and most popular football (soccer) tournament. There would be no fan zones and no large-screen TV’s in the city during the November 20 to December 18 World Cup, authorities said, citing Qatar’s poor treatment of migrant workers and its disregard of the event’s environmental impact. 

The moves may be something of a surprise coming from France, who have been the defending World Cup champions since beating Croatia in Moscow in 2018. 

“It is impossible for us to ignore the many alarms from NGOs about the abuse and exploitation of migrant workers,” Strasbourg’s Mayor Jeanne Barseghian told “20 minutes”, a free daily commuter newspaper.  

“Strasbourg, the capital of Europe and seat of the European Court of Human Rights […] cannot turn a blind eye to human rights being flouted to this extent.”

Barseghian went on to say concerns over climate change were another reason for the boycott. “With climate change being such a palpable reality now – with fires, [food] shortages and catastrophes – organising the World Cup in a desert is even more of an aberration. It’s an environmental disaster.”

The northern French port city of Lille followed suit over the weekend and was joined by Bordeaux, Marseille and then Paris on Tuesday.

"It would be really difficult to have a party while forgetting the dead bodies and the humanitarian situation in the aberration that is the World Cup in Qatar," Bordeaux’s Mayor Pierre Hurmic told broadcaster BFMTV on Monday. 

The Qatar World Cup project has been mired in controversy ever since the desert nation’s host bid was confirmed back in 2010. The