FIFA World Cup 2022: French President Macron Set To Return To Qatar For Finals Amid Criticism
Macron's visit to Qatar for the second time in a week to watch the final match between France and Argentina comes amid broad concerns about the emirate’s human rights and environmental record
New Delhi: French President Emmanuel Macron is set to visit Qatar for the second time in a week to watch the Fifa World Cup final match between France and Argentina that's expected to be one for the ages. Macron will be visiting the gulf nation amid concerns about the emirate’s human rights and environmental record, reported news agency AP.
It is majorly because the 44-year-old French President is a big soccer fan and a prominent advocate of the longstanding partnership between the two countries.
In his recent appearance when France won against Morocco, the President was seen mingling with French players in the dressing room on Wednesday evening at the Doha stadium and applauding the players to the sound of the “Freed from desire” music hit that has become the team’s victory hymn.
Protests Urged Boycott Of FIFA World Cup In Qatar
The World Cup in Qatar has triggered several controversies starting from the living conditions of migrant workers to the impact on the environment of air-conditioned stadiums and the status of LGBTQ people besides women and minorities. Several activists, mostly in Europe, had urged a boycott of the tournament.
Paris and some other major French cities retrained from broadcasting World Cup matches on giant screens in public fan zones amid concerns about Qatar’s human rights record.
Some also flagged concerns over the six-hour flight from Paris to Doha being energy-consuming and not climate-friendly in contradiction with Macron’s previous commitments.
‘Sports Should Not Be Politicized’: Macron
At a European summit in Brussels on Thursday, Macron said he fully stands by his decision. “I’m backing the France team and I think that the French are too,” he said.
Addressing the more than 20 million viewers, who watched the semifinal on French TF1 television, a record high for a World Cup game since 2006, Macron said, “Figures are there. We love our national team, we are proud of it, we want it to win.”
The French President had earlier declared that he would attend the semifinal and final if France qualified just as he attended during the previous World Cup won by the French in Russia in 2018.
In response to criticism, he said last month that “sports should not be politicized. ”
Macron's visit has met with resistance from activists. Civil campaign group Avaaz published Wednesday an ad in two French newspapers to denounce Macron’s trip to Qatar, saying “Players don’t need you at the World Cup. The planet does.”
“We thought that it was a shocking failure of leadership that Emmanuel Macron would go watch football” instead of attending an ongoing U.N. biodiversity conference in Canada, Avaaz campaign director Oscar Soria said on Twitter.
Some French leftist politicians also targeted the French President for his trips to the emirate, according to the report. A Green European Parliament lawmaker, Yannick Jadot, said this week that going to Qatar is a “political mistake” especially in the context of the corruption scandal that led the European Union’s parliament to suspend work on all files involving Qatar.
(With Agency Inputs)
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