Colau argued his position by adding that the Qatari regime “violates human rights” and aligned himself with the position of Amnesty International, which has categorized the meeting in Qatar as the “World of Shame”. The mayor also defended joining cities like Paris or Marseille in “rejecting” this competition, where there will be 32 countries represented by their respective football teams.
In fact, Colau also called on the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) to “remove” itself from participating in this World Cup, after recalling the working conditions denounced by a newspaper report The Guardian in which more than 6,500 workers lost their lives in the construction of the infrastructure to host the event. One of the other reasons that the municipal leader of Barcelona en Comú put forward is the violation of the rights of women or members of the LGBTI group perpetrated by the Qatari regime.
The mayoress, who admitted that she would be “in favor” of ceding public resources to follow decisive matches if the World Cup match was not in Qatar, has the support of her governing partner, the PSC. In fact, the first lieutenant of the mayor, Jaume Collboni, has referred through social networks to the words of the president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, who defended that holding the World Cup in this country will help to “get rid of prejudices”. “What the president of FIFA calls prejudice is the violation of human rights, the persecution of the LGBTI group and discrimination against women. The World Cup cannot be an excuse to whitewash the dictatorship,” tweeted Collboni on Twitter .
