We protest against placing the FIFA 2018 fan zone in a University district.
The only official fan zone for the FIFA World Cup in Moscow is to be placed next to the Moscow State University. After the protests the zone was moved a little further from the main building. This is a fake response. This placement will damage the University. We demand to move it away from the University district.
The noise and the security measures will affect badly the educational and research activities and the life of the campus with 6 500 habitants, 37 000 students and 9 000 professors and researchers. Faculties are to shorten the courses and the exam sessions, researchers are forces to take holidays. The residents of the dormitory are either to suffer from the noise or to risk eviction. The citizens are to suffer from a transport collapse caused by the installation of a strict gating system around territory that has always been open to public. The green territory around our University wasn’t designed to host a festival with 25 000 football fans.
We ask world education and research community to help us to protect our university. Not considering the opinion of the university community and making it suffer in order to organize a commercial event is an insult to all of us.
We ask all the associations, committees, trade unions and any other organizations that unite students, professors and researchers to write a letter to the FIFA president and to the rector of MSU.
Let’s make it clear that fan zone has to be taken away from the University district.
Our voices will only be heard when they are united.
Send a public letter from your organization, join our demand to move the fan zone.
Spread the information, use #noFanFestMSU in social networks.
Make a photo in your campus /laboratory/ lecture hall with #noFanFestMSU
Sign our petition individually (if you don’t associate yourself with education/research consider helping the ordinary citizens of Moscow to be heard and taken seriously).
Initiative Group of students and employees of Lomonosov Moscow State University (IGMSU)