Luxembourg ditches Qatar 2022 big screen viewings
The Grand Duchy's capital city follows in the footsteps of Paris and Marseille in abandoning fan zones
FIFA President Gianni Infantino addressing an audience © Photo credit: dpa
Luxembourg City will follow in the footsteps of a range of European cities and ditch fan zones and big screens for public viewings of the 2022 Qatar football world cup tournament, the mayor said this week.
The move to boycott the viewings of the matches, which will start on 20 November, comes amidst concerns of human rights violations in the Gulf state, as well as energy consumption.
Lydie Polfer, the mayor of the Grand Duchy’s capital, confirmed the news during a council meeting on Monday, in which she replied to a question by Claudie Reyland, a city councillor for the Greens.
"That's out of the question for us," Polfer said, when asked whether the city will have big screens installed for the events. Paris, Marseille, and Luxembourg neighbours Metz and Strasbourg have similarly decided not to show the tournament on giant public screens.
And last month, the Belgian town of Arlon, just across the border from Luxembourg decided to boycott the world cup.
“For social, ecological [and] political questions, we decided not to support the organisation of a giant screen”, Vincent Magnus, mayor of Arlon, told the Virgule French-language news website.
Football fans could in the past cheer their favourite teams on the Place Guillaume II, where big screens showed the World Cup matches.
