No giant screen will be installed in Montpellier to follow the 2022 World Cup. In a column published on the World website, Michaël Delafosse, Mayor (PS) of Montpellier, explained the position of the city of Hérault. To define Qatar’s decision to organize the event “grotesque” and “disastrous”.
“I believe that from time to time we must show a yellow or even red card to international organizations. The municipality will not mobilize means of giant screens.” On 11 October Michaël Delafosse, mayor (PS) of Montpellier, announced during a city council that his city, such as Paris, Marseille or Lille, would boycott the competition organized by Qatar, for social and ecological reasons.
In a column published on Sunday on the Le Monde website, the mayor recalled his intention not to give feedback on the 2022 World Cup. And he explained it once again, while no screens will be installed in the places of his city to broadcast the matches of the competition from November 20 to December 18.
“It’s time for football to stop its mad rush”
He described Qatar’s “disastrous” choice to organize the event as “grotesque” and unworthy of the values of football. “In the name of generous and altruistic football, we refuse to give our guarantee to this World Cup”, he said.
“We refuse, here in Montpellier, to bring our guarantee to this World Cup. Like other French cities, we will not install screens that broadcast matches. We will not, not because we do not like football, but because on the contrary we love it too much for accept that some of its international leaders continue to drag it down. “
“It’s time for football to stop its mad rush and go back to what it should never have stopped being: child’s play, sometimes played by artists,” he concludes. Since the World Cup organization was awarded to Doha, the affluent Gulf emirate has faced numerous criticisms aimed particularly at its environmental footprint, in place of women and LGBT + minorities and the treatment of migrant workers.
