Lille elected officials have decided: the 2022 World Cup in Qatar is "nonsense with regard to human rights, the environment and sport", according to a decision taken "unanimously" by the city council of the northern city on Friday evening.
Consequently, the municipality will not install any giant screen allowing the match to be seen in public, indicated on Twitter the mayor Martine Aubry.
Unanimously, the Municipal Council of #Lille voted this evening a declaration disapproving of the holding of the Football World Cup in Qatar, which is nonsense with regard to human rights, the environment and sport.
We will not broadcast any matches on a giant screen.
— Martine Aubry (@MartineAubry) September 30, 2022
For several years and even more in recent months, this World Cup in Qatar has been criticized because of the working conditions of workers on construction sites and its climatic impact, since the event will notably take place in air-conditioned stadiums.
An “ecological disaster”
This Lille decision is similar to that taken shortly before in Strasbourg, another left-wing city.
“It is impossible for us not to hear the many alerts from NGOs denouncing the abuse and exploitation of immigrant workers.
Thousands of foreign workers have died on the construction sites, it's unbearable, ”explained the environmental mayor, Jeanne Barseghian, in 20 minutes.
"Strasbourg, European capital, seat of the European Court of Human Rights, cannot decently condone this mistreatment, cannot turn a blind eye when human rights are thus flouted," she said.
Moreover, “while climate change is a palpable reality, with its fires, droughts, shortages and disasters, the organization of the world football championships in a desert is all the more an aberration, an ecological disaster!
“, estimated the chosen one.
