Several major French cities including Lille, Strasbourg and Bordeaux said they will not organize fan zones or put up giant outdoor screens to show 2022 FIFA World Cup soccer matches in protest against ecological and humanitarian issues.
Leftist and ecologist mayors in those cities said the loss of immigrant workers' lives during construction of the venues in Qatar, as well as the energy that will be wasted to cool the sports arenas, means they would not promote the Nov. 20 to Dec. 18 event.
"It would be a farce if we were to be complicit with the humanitarian and ecological abuses that are embodied by this World Cup," ecologist Bordeaux mayor Pierre Hurmic said on BFM TV on Monday.