How do I watch the 2022 World Cup? That’s a question many football fans are currently asking themselves. At least public viewing will be difficult this year. Because many German cities do without the large, public live broadcasts. The reasons for this are diverse.
For the “Summer Fairy Tale” in 2006 crowds of football fans were drawn to the huge screens in the cities: public viewing was the order of the day. Whether in the beer garden, the pub or on the big squares – people met everywhere in Germany to follow and celebrate the home World Cup together. This year, enthusiasm for the big tournament in Qatar is limited. On the one hand, because of the human rights violations committed there, which were made public in advance. On the other hand, the energy crisis spoiled many organizers and fans from enjoying the broadcast. These cities want to do without public viewing.
The big fan mile at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin will probably not exist in 2022. “The private organizer, who originally wanted to organize the event, cited uncertainty about the further development of the corona situation as the reason,” reads the official capital portal.
But the pandemic is not the only reason given for the cancellation. The seasons and the fact that the tournament falls in the pre-Christmas period do not exactly speak for the big event. And the temperatures, after all, the World Cup will rise from November 20th to December 18th and thus in the middle of the German winter.
Those responsible in other major German cities see the situation similarly. “The city of Cologne is not planning any public viewing or other events on the occasion of the 2022 World Cup,” said a city spokeswoman. There have also been no applications from private organizers in Cologne so far.
Similar statements come from other cities in North Rhine-Westphalia such as Düsseldorf. The state capital will be one of the ten venues for the European Football Championship in 2024. It is not yet known what the public viewing will look like on this occasion. In the Ruhr area, fans in Bochum and Dortmund also have to do without the pack experience.
Wiesbaden’s Lord Mayor Gert-Uwe Mende agrees with the general tenor and, in addition to the human rights situation in Qatar, above all cites the energy crisis: “The public sector cannot demand that the citizens reduce their energy consumption and at the same time hold a public viewing in winter warm places, for example in heated tents,” explains Mende to the “Wiesbadener Kurier”.
In the Hanseatic city of Hamburg, the miners’ group recently organized public viewings on the Heiligengeistfeld. But the event area in St. Pauli will remain empty for the 2022 World Cup.
In February of this year, the council meeting in Kiel decided not to support plans for public viewing: “The Kiel council meeting agrees with the widespread criticism that the World Cup should not have been awarded to Qatar,” it says Decision.
For many locals and guests, football fun in the Munich Olympic Park was always part of the big sporting events. In the state capital of Munich, there will be no corresponding events in the Olympic Park this time. Public viewing was never intended for the World Cup this year. “Due to the time in November and December alone, public viewing outdoors makes little sense,” says Tobias Kohler, spokesman for the Olympic Park Society.
This is followed by Augsburg and Nuremberg, as well as the cities of Frankfurt and Leipzig.
If watching the games from the couch at home is not enough for you, you can of course also indulge in public viewing in a decimated setting, for example in sports restaurants or pubs.
But be careful: many of them have joined under the hashtag
