There will hardly be any boozy football parties and group watching in the beer garden for the upcoming World Cup in Germany. Public viewing just doesn’t quite fit in with the pre-Christmas period, the energy crisis and the unpredictability of the corona pandemic.
But above all the political situation in the host country Qatar is dampening the enthusiasm for football. As a survey by the German Press Agency showed, most cities are not planning any major events for the World Cup, which will be held from November 20th to December 18th. There will probably not be a big fan mile in Berlin and the city is not planning anything in Frankfurt am Main either.
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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.
But there are also exceptions: In Wolfsburg, for example, a public viewing of the games of the German national soccer team is being planned at the Christmas market, as city management division manager Frank Hitzschke said. The human rights violations in connection with the football World Cup in Qatar are “in no way justifiable with our values: Nonetheless, on the one hand we see a great deal of interest from the spectators and on the other hand we should also think of the athletes who are not involved in the decisions about the venue are and deserve the support of the fans.”
