Pas d’écrans géants non plus pour le Mondial-2022
As in Strasbourg, Lille and Rodez, there will be no fan zones or giant screens in Bordeaux, which will not broadcast the World Cup matches in Qatar (November 20-December 18), said Monday its ecologist mayor Pierre Hurmic.
“I would really have the impression, if Bordeaux were to welcome these fan zones, to be an accomplice” of “this sporting event which represents all the humanitarian, ecological and sporting aberrations”, declared Pierre Hurmic on Monday morning.
Among the reasons for the boycott, the treatment of immigrant workers and the number of deaths in the context of the construction of the eight stadiums of the World Cup. The official death toll is just three, but the International Labor Organization (ILO) said in a report that 50 workers died in workplace accidents in Qatar in 2020 and 500 were seriously injured, a figure that could be higher according to her due to shortcomings in the accident recording system.
“Energetic aberration”
In addition to the question of human rights, Pierre Hurmic refuses to be “incoherent” in relation to the efforts requested of the population in terms of “energy sobriety”. “You cannot call your fellow citizens to sobriety and yourself be complicit in energy aberration of this nature”, he declared, adding that “those who awarded the 2010 World Cup to Qatar were years away -light of what energy sobriety was”.
The environmental mayor of the city, elected in 2020, clarified that the decision would have been the same if the World Cup had been played in the summer, and that no screen would be put in place if the France team reached the final. On Saturday, the socialist mayor of Lille Martine Aubry also announced that no giant screen would be installed, denouncing “nonsense with regard to human rights, the environment and sport”. A decision also taken in Rodez and Strasbourg, in particular.
A little over a month from the start of the competition, Pierre Hurmic is convinced “that other mayors will make identical decisions in the days to come”. He also indicated that he did not watch the competition on television.