A month and a half before the start of the competition, the city of Laval is positioning itself in favor of the boycott movement largely led by major cities in France such as Paris, Marseille and Lille. The town hall announces that it does not want to support the competition organized in Qatar, in any way whatsoever. There will therefore be no fan-zone, nor giant screens planned by the city to support the blues.
“It is a humanitarian and ecological disaster”
The city explains its disagreement on the broadcast on the big screen of the Mondial-2022, by two well-known distinct reasons, because also advanced by other cities boycotting the competition, “cThe refusal is based on the one hand for humanitarian reasons and on the other hand for environmental reasons“, says Céline Loiseau, assistant for youth and sport at the town hall of Laval.
The assistant specifies the environmental and human commitment of the city of Laval, and affirms that“we cannot condone in times of energy crisis that this stadium is air-conditioned. In addition to being an environmental disaster, it is also a humanitarian disaster, the working conditions of the workers and the many deaths on the site are the cause evidence.”