Global soccer's biggest event, the FIFA World Cup, began in Qatar on Sunday, but many fans in soccer-mad Europe have been reluctant to join in the celebrations.

Critics have cited concern over human rights, the treatment of migrant laborers building the stadia, the energy crisis, and also the way the right to host the tournament was won as reasons for dented fan enthusiasm.

In Germany, retail chains Intersport and Sport2000 said sales of replica team jerseys, which are a reliable barometer of fan enthusiasm, are down 50 percent compared to the 2018 tournament in Russia, and an opinion poll carried out by the Infratest dimap company said more than half of people questioned were considering ignoring the tournament altogether.

Peter Zimmermann, owner of the Lotta pub in the city of Cologne, which usually shows matches on the big screen, told German broadcaster DW his venue and many others would not show games.

"We want to set an example against this thoroughly corrupt FIFA system, where it's really all about money and human rights and the football culture don't matter at all," he said.

Former England captain David Beckham has been one of the faces of Qatar's PR campaign around the tournament, having previously been a high-profile ambassador for England's failed bid to host the 2022 competition.

In an interview in The Guardian newspaper in 2011, shortly after Qatar's 2022 bid won, Beckham said of it: "There was obviously something wrong with the system when you look at the investigations since the vote and some of the things that have come out… it gives you a real sick feeling."

Calling out what he cited as Beckham's hypocrisy over human rights, British comedian and activist Joe Lycett challenged him to end his PR relationship with Qatar in return for a charity donation of 10,000 pounds ($11, 800), or he would shred the money. Beckham did not relent, and Lycett went ahead with the shredding.

After the country won the rights to host the tournament, Qatari-based QSI became the majority shareholder in France's dominant soccer team, Paris St Germain, and later took over the club altogether.

Its money has brought three of the World Cup's biggest names, Neymar of Brazil, Kylian Mbappe of France, and Lionel Messi of Argentina, to Paris, but despite this and France being defending champions, there will be no big screen showings in Paris, or other French cities.

"There is the problem of the environmental impact," Paris local government official Pierre Rabadan said, citing the need for air-conditioned stadia amid crises in both climate change and energy provision, and also expressing concern about the working conditions of the stadium construction in Qatar.

Jeanne Barseghian, mayor of Strasbourg, also cited ethical and environmental concerns.

"While climate change is a palpable reality, with fires and droughts and other disaster, organizing a soccer tournament in the desert defies common sense and amounts to an ecological disaster," she told the Associated Press.

But world soccer supremo FIFA president Gianni Infantino called such concerns a "one-sided moral lesson" by Western nations.

"For what (Europeans) have been doing for 3,000 years around the world, we should be apologizing for the next 3,000 years before giving moral lessons," he was cited by the AP as saying.

He also said progress had been made in Qatar and the country was "ready" and would host "the best World Cup ever".

"I don't have to defend Qatar, they can defend themselves," he added. "I defend football."

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