DOHA: Two days before the official kick-off of the Football World Cup 2022 in Qatar, the main organising body has announced a complete ban on all alcoholic beverages including beer at the match venues. This comes as a u-turn from its previous announcement that beer sales will be permitted in only designated areas of the stadiums in the country.
This is the first time the competition will be held in a conservative Islamic Country which has strict restrictions on the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages.
"Following discussions between host country authorities and FIFA, a decision has been made to focus the sale of alcoholic beverages on the FIFA Fan Festival, other fan destinations and licensed venues, removing sales points of beer from Qatar's FIFA World Cup 2022 stadium perimeters," said a statement FIFA.
This will be the first time that beer will not be available to the fans of the games. Also, it is being considered a major setback to AB InBev, the parent company of the popular beer brand Budweiser. It is one of the prime sponsors of the tournament and was given exclusive permission to sell beer in the eight stadiums where matches will be played. Although the locations and timing for the sale of the beverage were allocated beforehand.
"Tournament organisers appreciate AB InBev's understanding and continuous support to our joint commitment to cater for everyone during the FIFA World Cup," the official statement added.
The announcement comes after the failure of a long-going negotiation regarding the same topic between the representatives of FIFA, Budweiser and Qatar's Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy.
A lot of the fans coming to the country for the game have expressed their displeasure regarding this decision at the last moment over social media. But the local government maintained its stand on the sale of alcohol in the Middle East region.
The statement added that alcohol will still be available in the hospitality areas of the stadiums and Budweiser can continue the sale of their non-alcoholic beverages during the matches.
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