With a little over a month left until the 2022 FIFA World Cup kicks off in Qatar, a string of French cities – including Paris, Lille, Bordeaux, Strasbourg and Marseille – have announced they are boycotting the tournament and will not set up the customary fan zones with giant TV screens to promote it. The protest is directly aimed at Gulf state host Qatar and the steep human and environmental costs of the event that activists say Doha is doing everything to hide.
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.
