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German football fans call for Qatar World Cup boycott

Dortmund fans display banners demanding a boycott of the World Cup in Qatar during the Bundesliga football between Borussia Dortmund and Bochum
— Berlin (AFP)

Fans in stadiums across Germany on Saturday called for boycotts of the upcoming Qatar World Cup.

In Dortmund, fans in the club's yellow wall - the all-standing southern stand - unveiled a banner saying 'BOYCOTT QATAR 2022' alongside a banner saying 'more dead than minutes of play'.

The sentiment was echoed by Bayern Munich and Hertha Berlin fans in the teams' clash in the German capital, as well as fans at the second-division game between Fortuna Duesseldorf and St Pauli.

The Dortmund fans' banner, which was printed in the club colours of yellow and black, refers to the 5,760 minutes of football which will be played in Qatar alongside the disputed figure of 6,500 deaths published by British newspaper The Guardian in 2021.