A SCOTTISH craft brewery is to donate a portion of its profits to human rights organisations throughout the entirety of the World Cup.
BrewDog – a multinational brewery which is headquartered in Ellon, Aberdeenshire – has announced that for the duration of the football tournament all profits from their Lost Lager will be donated to registered charities fighting human rights abuses in Qatar.
In a statement the company has criticised the decision to hold the tournament in Qatar, where male homosexuality is illegal and thousands of migrant workers have died since the country was awarded the responsibility of hosting the event.
We're donating all profits made from Lost Lager sold during the World Cup to causes fighting human rights abuses. pic.twitter.com/5OTA9Gn71G
— BrewDog (@BrewDog) November 7, 2022
It said: “This isn't a World Cup. It's a World F*Cup. Football's been dragged through the mud, before a single ball's been kicked. Let's be honest: Qatar won it through bribery. On an industrial scale.
“Football is meant to be for everyone. But in Qatar, homosexuality is illegal, flogging is an accepted form of punishment, and it's OK for 6,500 workers to die building your stadium.
“That's why we're kicking off. And we're putting our money where our mouth is, with all the profits from our Lost Lager sold during the tournament going to fight human rights abuse.
“We're proud to be launching BrewDog as an anti-sponsor of the World F*Cup. To be clear we love football, we just don't love corruption, abuse and death.
“So join us. Let's raise a glass to the players. To the fans. To free speech. And two fingers to anyone who thinks a World Cup in Qatar makes sense.”
It comes as Qatar’s foreign minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al Thani dismissed negative coverage of the upcoming tournament as “misinformation”.
In an interview with Sky News al Thani said that “preaching from a distance” was not a solution and claimed that criticism of the event from Western nations was being viewed as “arrogant”.
He said: "What about their own problems within their countries, which they are turning a blind eye? Honestly, not me or the Qatari people only, but there's a lot of people from around the world who are just seeing this as a sense of arrogance.
"A sense of people who cannot accept a small country from the Middle East has won the bid to host the World Cup."
Many pundits and footballers have said they will confront the issues of human rights abuses and LGBT rights while still taking part in the tournament.
However, last week Fifa wrote to all 32 countries taking part in the World Cup and pleaded with them not to allow politics to detract from the football.
In a letter Fifa president Gianni Infantino and secretary general Fatma Samoura said: "Please do not allow football to be dragged into every ideological or political battle that exists."
