The alcohol-free World Cup is a failure. Prohibition just doesn’t work
But fans impress with ingenuity.
If you are going to a foreign country, you must respect the local culture. This is the basic principle for everyone. Qatar is a country with almost no alcohol. It is prohibited outside hotels and resort areas. There is only one warehouse on the outskirts of Doha that sells alcohol for home consumption. Everything.
For the World Cup in Qatar, they made an exception – they were allowed to sell beer in stadiums and in the fan zone. However, two days before the start of the tournament, the organizers announced that there would still be no beer in the stadiums. And that’s after FIFA signed a $75 million contract with a brewer. And now fans are walking around the stadium in front of empty beer coolers.
Yes, you have to respect the Qatari rules, but as Ronaldo said recently, respect must be mutual. Changing the rules in two days is disrespectful. As we remember, in Russia there is also a ban on the sale of beer in stadiums, but for the 2018 World Cup they made an exception. It was reported that more than 3.2 million glasses of beer (each – 0.45 liters) were drunk in stadiums then.
Indeed, in Qatar, alcohol can be drunk in the stadium during the match of the 2022 World Cup. In the VIP sectors they offer not only beer, but also champagne. A colleague from the league, Polina Kuimova, said that “drunk peasants regularly fall from VIPs in stadiums.” The loophole is the same as in Russia: alcohol is not sold, but provided free to everyone. Although, in fact, they paid for it, drinks are included in the ticket price. Everything is legal, but if we talk about the approach as a whole, it seems hypocritical.
Qataris ban beer in the stadium, but this leads fans to bring even stronger alcohol. People turn on ingenuity that might surprise even us. If you didn’t understand what was in the video above, then let’s explain. There are special binoculars, which are actually not binoculars, but a container in which you can hide alcohol. Such devices are sold for $ 15. Another thing is that sometimes the police can guess that something is wrong with the binoculars.
Sure, alcohol is one thing you have to be careful with. Breaking with it can lead to very vile consequences. Although there is still a difference between beer and stronger drinks, with which it is easier to get to the undesirable stage. And you also need to understand that for many countries, beer is a part of football culture. For example, for the Germans. Although not alone. If you come to a stadium in Spain, they drink away from wine.
Fans in Qatar have to compensate for the lack of beer in stadiums at the expense of the fan zone. It is the only one in the whole country. According to my colleagues, there is so much beer that your feet are sticking to the floor. Is this what the organizers wanted? Would anyone feel worse from a more even distribution of beer? Also, the alcohol ban will definitely affect attendance. If it isn’t already.
