Paris joins other French cities in World Cup TV boycott

Paris has joined several French cities in announcing they will not show World Cup matches in public places or set up “fan zones” in protest at human rights and environmental abuses in the host nation, Qatar.

The moves to boycott the competition next month come after what has been described as a “last minute crisis of conscience” by the public authorities.

Local authorities in Marseille, Lille, Bordeaux, Reims, Nancy, Rodez and the capital have announced they will not install giant television screens as in the past to relay matches.

“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,” Benoît Payan, the mayor of Marseille and head of a leftwing and environmentalist coalition, said in a statement.

In Lille, the city council unanimously voted not to broadcast World Cup matches. The city’s Socialist mayor, Martine Aubry, said holding the competition in Qatar was “a nonsense in terms of human rights, the environment and sport”.

In Paris, Pierre Rabadan, a former French rugby international and the deputy in charge of sport at city hall, said there was “no question” of installing fan zones. This is despite the city’s football team, Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), being owned by Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, the Emir of Qatar since 2011.

Strasbourg has also decided not to screen the World Cup. “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,” the city’s ecologist mayor, Jeanne Barseghian, told 20 Minutes.

”Strasbourg, the European capital and seat of the