Offenburg (dpa/lsw) – The city of Offenburg is not organizing a public viewing for the World Cup in Qatar this year. The reason given by the city on Thursday evening was: “As is well known, the human rights situation in Qatar is very problematic.” The reports by non-governmental organizations paint, among other things, a bad picture of how migrant workers are treated. “This has led the city to the current decision.”
The World Cup is taking place in the middle of winter this time – from November 20th to December 18th. That’s why any organizers have to come up with something anyway where they set up their big screens this time. Numerous French cities such as Paris, Marseille and Strasbourg had previously announced that they would not broadcast the games on large squares as usual.
The desert state of Qatar on the Arabian peninsula has long been criticized for human rights violations and the treatment of workers from other countries. In the past there had also been fatal accidents on the World Cup construction sites. The emirate’s government refers to its own reforms and rejects some of the criticism.
