It’s not yet boiling in the rare fan zones of French-speaking Switzerland
Despite the controversies and bans in many cantons, a few giant screens are scattered in Romandie. Here, the atmosphere is both calm and intriguing.
On Thursday, Embolo’s goal warmed up the CERM of Martigny a little, which remained calm despite around 300 spectators. Other fans in the Romandie areas try to motivate the public with concerts, Brazilian dances or Chinese fondues galore.
DARRIN VANSELOW
We are 5000 kilometers from Doha. All the cities of Romandie are deprived of fan zones… All of them? Nope! A few die-hard football fans resisted the pressure. And life is not easy for these spaces dedicated to football fans, which can be counted on the fingers of one hand in French-speaking Switzerland. In Delémont, for example, Edi Hirt this week deplored three vandalized tarpaulins in front of the Halle des expositions, which can accommodate around 1,000 people. “I will go to the end, persists the Jura organizer. I started preparing for this event in February 2021, no one was talking about a boycott, it started about a month ago. How do you ban a 13-year-old kid from watching Neymar play?
The fan zone of the Neuchâtel university city has also been maintained, while the Municipality has renounced such a device for its population. “Fortunately, I made my request more than a year ago, underlines its organizer, Elian Bacouet. Given the context, I would have had no chance if I had done it this fall. On the side of Yverdon, Jean-Christophe Gostanian insists on the name “Fan de Foot” rather than that of fan zone for his place of sharing organized in a restaurant in the heart of the technological park. “We want to invite football lovers but we do not endorse the context of this World Cup in Qatar, specifies the organizer. We did not receive pressure or insults, but thought a lot before launching this initiative which does not depend on any public funds.