There will be no blue-white-red wave of supporters at Place de Gaulle in Cherbourg-en-Cotentin for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. The city announces this Tuesday, October 4 that it will not broadcast any matches on a giant screenthus joining a growing list of municipalities that have made the same choice.
A measure of energy sobriety
Several reasons are invoked by the town hall to explain this decision. The first is economical and energeticat a time of energy sobriety. “I believe that a community must show some restraint in this period when many of us will have to make sacrifices to pay our energy bill”explains the mayor, Benoît Arrivé.
“Furthermore, the high cost of retransmissions on a giant screen, linked both to the rental of equipment and to compliance with the security conditions required by the State, confirms this decision.” The place of the theater will also be occupied by the Christmas festivitiessince the competition takes place from November 20 to December 18.
An “aberrant” human and ecological cost
But there is also the choice of Qatar as host country which makes the city of Cherbourg-en-Cotentin react. “The human rights violations during the construction of the stadiums in Qatar and the ecological aberration they represent disqualify this event. The City therefore does not wish to be associated with it in any way”justifies Benoît Arrivé.
According to the International Labor Organization, the construction of the stadiums would have cost the lives of 50 workers in 2020, and another 500 are believed to have been seriously injured. But this figure could be higher, given the shortcomings of the accident registration system.