La Relève et La Peste lists the scandals that have erupted since FIFA named it a candidate for the World Cup Qatar in 2010. They are not few.

Thus, "coinciding with the beginning of the school year" has revived the debate on the tournament in France, probably due to the scandals that have splashed their football representatives and their political leaders. The first to call the boycott were former footballer Eric Cantona and actor Vincent Lindon, followed by other media, footballers and politicians such as former President François Hollande.

"If I traveled [Qatar], I would have a party and celebrate goals in a place where the workers died," says Fabian Bonnel, founder of the most popular group of amateurs in favor of the French team, Les Irrésistibles. At the 2018 Russian World Cup there were 600 fans of this team, but this year nearly 100 will go to Qatar, according to La Relève.

For his part, the director of the magazine Le Quotidien de La Réunion, Vincent Vibert, has announced that his media will not offer any line to the World Cup of Football, through the decision made by the members of the sports department to prioritize the values he defends, among them respect for the environment, coinciding with the 46th anniversary of the newspaper.

Also some hosteleros

Calls to the boycott have also involved some hospitality companies. For example, some twenty bars in the Lille area have announced their intention not to broadcast television matches. A group of students is drawing up a list of bars with the aim of organizing collective activities during the championship.

The greatest silence in the world of football

At the moment, no player has said that he is going to give up playing the World Cup, and few have criticised the fact that it is Qatar that gathers it. Toni Kroos, a Real Madrid player, showed concern about the issue when asked, but said he did not support the boycott call: "The spectacularity of the World Cup can increase attention to these problems."

Although there are people who believe that not playing the World Cup could highlight the problems more, the "demands" of the football teams are today limited almost to putting human rights messages on football training shirts, as you can read in La Relève.

In this regard, the sports newspaper L’Équipe has announced that it will not do the boiko, that 30 journalists will follow the tournament and that, in addition to the football matches, if they consider it appropriate, they will deal with more thorny issues.

The echo of the call to boycott is not clear, but the debate is on the table, at least in France. Today many citizens (53%) have turned to watch the championship on television. As La Relève says, as the quote approaches, the opposite voices may be more, but what if the French selection comes to the end?

Close the report with another question: "Does watching the games make you accomplices to the atrocities of the 2022 World Cup? ".