The former President of the Republic assured Thursday that if he was still in office at the Elysée, he “would not go” to Qatar.
The former President of the Republic François Hollande assured Thursday that if he was still in office at the Elysée, he “would not goat the FIFA World Cup which is due to start in two months in Qatar (November 20-December 18). “If I was the head of state, I wouldn’t go“, said the former president (2012-2017) during the meeting”Tomorrow sportsorganized at the Maison de la Radio in Paris. “I cannot ask football players (…) not to go to a competition for which they have been preparing for years“, he explained. “I think that for a PSG player to talk about Qatar is not necessarily easy, compared to his employer.».
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«On the other hand, a player or a high-level sportsman, and there are many, were able to act to fight against the racism of which they themselves were victims. They were able to engage in certain causes, in particular on the climate issue or on human rights.“, reminded François Hollande. “Maybe some will speak when they are at the World Cup, but that’s not sure, because it’s not the place where it’s convenient to give your point of view when the player is expected that he first fulfills his mission which is to win his competition. When Mbappé takes a position on a subject, it will considerably mobilize a certain number of young people (…) when we see the number of followers on social networks“, he added.
«Being sporty is not just playing with a ball and running fast, it’s also having a social role, and it’s not so easy to impose this responsibility on the players.“, estimated François Hollande. In France, the deputies of LFI castigated Thursday the holding of the World Cup-2022 in Qatar, evoking the “mistreatment of immigrant workers” and the “outdoor air-conditioned matches“, claiming a”strong political response from the French authorities“. Calls not to follow the World Cup in Qatar, criticized on human rights or the environment, are beginning to appear two months before the start of the competition, without meeting a massive echo for the time being. “The position of telling viewers not to watch the game, luckily there is no one behind them to tell them what to do“, added François Hollande.