Cheers but no beers: Qatar World Cup stadiums to be alcohol free with pint sales only permitted outside venues before and after some games
- Fans attending this winter’s FIFA World Cup face difficulties accessing beer
- Qatar is the first Muslim country to host the international festival of football
- Major alcohol brands normally use the tournament to promote their products
Qatar’s World Cup stadium stands are set to be alcohol-free, with beer sales outside arenas only allowed before and after some matches.
This year’s World Cup is the first to be held in a Muslim country with strict controls on alcohol, presenting unique challenges for organisers of an event often associated with beer drinking fans and sponsored by global brewing brands.
A source said: ‘At stadiums, the plans are still being finalised, but the current discussion is to allow fans to have beer upon arrival and when leaving stadium, but beer won’t be served during the match or inside the stadium bowl.’
An estimated 1.2 million people are expected to travel to Qatar for the tournament, which normally features fans drinking across host cities.
Football fans heading the FIFA World Cup in Qatar have been warned they will not be able to drink in stadiums during the tournament
Tournament organisers are working on regulations concerning alcohol – which will be far stricter than at any previous tournament
Fans have been warned there will be no ‘all day drinking’ in Doha on matchdays
In 2014, Brazil was forced to lift a ban on alcohol after pressure from tournament organisers FIFA to appease major sponsors.
Drinking alcohol in public places is illegal in Qatar although it is not a dry state like Saudi Arabia.
However, drunkeness in public is illegal and fans drinking too much face prosecution and imprisonment.
Fans at November’s World Cup will also be able to buy beer during restricted times in certain parts of the main FIFA fan zone in the Al Bidda park in Doha, the Qatari capital.
A source added: ‘Unlike previous World Cup fan zones, beer won’t be served all day long, but at restricted times.’
Alcohol will also be available for 15,000 to 20,000 fans on a disused corner of the Doha Golf Club, some kilometres away from stadiums and the main fan zone, the document shows.
In addition, a sandy plot surrounded by a ten-foot wall and located between the delivery entrance of a hotel and a district cooling plant will be transformed into a 10,000 capacity venue promising Techno music and alcohol.
A spokesperson for the organisers, Qatar’s Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, said that together with FIFA they will announce plans on the availability of alcohol at the 28-day tournament ‘in due course’.
‘Alcohol is already available in designated areas in Qatar, such as hotels and bars, and this will not change in 2022. With the aim of catering to visiting fans in 2022, alcohol will be available in additional designated areas during the tournament,’ the spokesperson said.
Although FIFA’s website advertises free flowing ‘beers, Champagne, sommelier-selected wines, and premium spirits’ in stadium VIP hospitality suites, alcohol was not sold in stadiums in December during a test event for the World Cup.
Visitors are prohibited from carrying alcohol into Qatar, even from airport duty free, and they cannot shop at the country’s only liquor store, on the outskirts of Doha, where foreign residents with permits can buy for home consumption.
Alcohol can be bought by visitors to Qatar at a handful of licensed hotels and clubs, where a pint of beer can cost £15
The price of beer inside the fan zones and close to the stadium has not yet been agreed, the source said.
Earlier this year, another source close to the discussions told Reuters that alcohol prices will be capped in the fan zones, pointing out that at the FIFA Club World Cup in 2019 a pint of beer cost around £5.
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