Fans at the World Cup in Qatar wanted to deprive beer

Just two days before the start of the football tournament, the royal family of Qatar demanded from FIFA a complete ban on the sale of alcohol in all stadiums where the 2022 World Cup matches will be held.

The host nation, which generally allows the sale of alcohol to foreigners who drink at licensed hotels and restaurants or non-Muslim residents with special permits to drink at home, is putting significant pressure on FIFA to stop selling beer, MailOnline reports. in eight World Cup stadiums.

If the Qatar authorities manage to follow through with the drinking ban, it would mean that the world-famous beer company – one of the tournament’s biggest sponsors – would be unable to sell its beer to fans at the games, potentially violating FIFA’s multi-million dollar contract with the brewing company.

While talks on the issue between the beer makers and FIFA are ongoing, although The Times suggests that Budweiser’s sales halt is now “probable” following the intervention of the Qatari ruling family (according to The New York Times, the intervention was carried out by Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, brother of the ruler of Qatar). So at the moment, the only place where beer is certain to be available is in the fan zones.

Up to this point, it was assumed that World Cup guests would be able to buy alcohol in hotels and restaurants, in fan zones at certain times and in stadium lobbies (but not inside). At present, ticket holders, according to the fan guide prepared by FIFA, will be able to buy beer in special areas around the perimeter of the stadium three hours before the start of the match and one hour after the final whistle. Inside the stadiums, fans can buy non-alcoholic beer and cola. Beer will cost about $14 (about 840 rubles) per pint in official establishments, and fans will be limited to four servings of beer so as not to get drunk. For those who still get drunk, the authorities have created a special zone for sobering up.

This week, FIFA has already made one concession to the Qatari hosts regarding the availability of beer products in the stadiums. The local organizers insisted that the brewing company’s stands were too visible, so FIFA agreed to move them to places where they would be less visible.

If beer is banned from sale, the only place where you can buy alcohol in stadiums will be VIP boxes, which start at $22,450 per match. Those who are lucky enough to take a seat there are promised “soft drinks, beer, champagne, selected sommelier wines and premium spirits.”

But in the meantime, the first fan appeared in the Qatari capital this week. 45-year-old Brian Davidson stood in line for two hours waiting for the start of sales and received a pint of beer in the largest fan zone of the World Cup in downtown Doha. The high price for the drink did not bother the American too much: “I was most worried that there would be no beer at all, so I don’t mind paying a little more. Before coming to Qatar, I was a little worried about alcohol restrictions, but I must say that all the excitement and the wait was worth it. It’s nice to be the first fan to drink beer at this tournament. I feel like Pele or Maradona – the creator of the history of the world championships.

Fan zone alcohol sales manager Nektatios Kassotakis told MailOnline that 48,000 cans of beer were brewed in refrigerators for opening night and that another half a million cans would be available before the end of the tournament. “I know this is a Muslim country with strict alcohol laws, but it’s great that fans from all over the world can enjoy a drink while watching games in the fan zones. Football and beer are like love and marriage – they go hand in hand.” — Kassotakis says.

In addition to the drink with “degrees”, fans in Qatar can also count on non-alcoholic beer, which will cost a little cheaper than usual – about $ 12 per pint. Many guests, by the way, are not happy with the high prices for food and drinks in the fan zone. Burgers are sold there for about $14, a chicken sandwich and nachos for $10. Switzerland fan Marion Spihtik complains: “Beer is very expensive, as is the food. I will go to a few games and come back to this fan zone because it was a lot of fun. But I don’t think I’ll drink and eat a lot when I’m here.”

But World Cup guests should be aware that consuming alcohol outside of designated areas can result in a fine of up to 3,000 rials, which is more than $800, and a six-month prison sentence.

The sale of alcohol is perhaps the only problem that haunts the World Cup in Qatar. Despite the fact that the championship is held in late autumn-early winter, the heat promises to be still strong – daytime temperatures hover around 30 ° C at this time with high humidity. Part of the games will be played in the scorching heat at 13:00, although later matches will start around 22:00 local time when it will be cooler.

In the West, Qatar, as the host nation of the World Cup, has also come under fire and serious allegations of mistreatment of migrant workers who built stadiums and infrastructure for the championship to accommodate more than 1 million fans arriving in a country with a permanent population of only 300,000. And many of the guest workers are believed to have been victims of the local hot weather. For its part, Doha claims that only three worker deaths are directly related to the 2022 World Cup construction project. But human rights activists insist that the real death toll is likely in the hundreds, and possibly thousands.

And workers in some of the world’s poorest countries report being paid just a penny a day for their work in one of the richest Arab monarchies.

Former FIFA chief Sepp Blatter also admitted that hosting the tournament in Qatar was a “mistake”. In his opinion, a small country (the area of ​​the emirate is 11.5 thousand square kilometers) is simply not large enough to host a mass event.

Problems also arose in the run-up to the tournament, often related to the conservative views of the rulers of a Muslim country. Many in the West have raised concerns about the rights of World Cup fans, especially gays and women, whose rights rights groups say are discriminated against by Qatari law. A scandal erupted last week after the Qatari ambassador for the World Cup told German broadcaster ZDF that homosexuality is “mind damage”. In an interview filmed in Doha, former Qatari international Khalid Salman addressed the issue of homosexuality, which is banned in the country. “They have to accept our rules here,” Salman said in an interview and called homosexuality “haram” (that is, forbidden).

At the same time, the organizers have repeatedly stated that during the World Cup in Qatar they are waiting for everyone who will be provided with security. The huge pressure from abroad on the small but very wealthy Middle Eastern state in the run-up to the football championship has led FIFA to issue a desperate appeal to federations from 32 countries: “Please, let’s now focus on football!”