The World Cup descended into chaos on Friday with claims of “total hypocrisy” as Qatar tried to ban ordinary fans from drinking beer outside stadiums.
Video footage taken by the Mirror Online showed FIFA delegates and guests quaffing expensive French champagne at the official party after the draw in April.
But the decision to try and ban booze for the ordinary supporters has sparked outrage with claims: “it’s one rule for the rich and one for the poor.”
After the draw in April, I watched hundreds of FIFA guests getting stuck into expensive French champagne. England boss Gareth Southgate was among those at the lavish after draw party which went on into the early hours.
I watched drunken delegates get onto the stage to join the band to bellow “ole, ole, ole Qatar, Qatar.” I remember one waitress telling me: “It's expensive French champagne and they are all drinking it like water. They just don’t care.”
England fan Neal Weekes said: “They are threatening us with no beer before the games. It’s outrageous. It’s one rule for them and one for us. It’s always the diehard fans who miss out. Total hypocrisy.”
Neal, 57, from Greenwich, London will arrive in Qatar this weekend. He said ordinary Three Lions fans will be disgusted at the proposed ban. “It’s a disgrace,” he said.
World Cup organisers will ban the sale of all beer with alcohol at the eight stadiums used for the tournament. The decision comes only two days before games start in Qatar and 12 years after the country first consented to respect FIFA's commercial partners.
Non-alcoholic beer will still be available for fans at the 64 matches. Ronan Evain, the executive director of the fan group Football Supporters Europe, called the decision to ban beer sales at the stadiums “extremely worrying.”
“For many fans, whether they don’t drink alcohol or are used to dry stadium policies at home, this is a detail. It won’t change their tournament," Evain wrote on Twitter. “But with 48 (hours) to go, we’ve clearly entered a dangerous territory — where ‘assurances’ don’t matter anymore.”
While a sudden decision like this may seem extreme in the West, Qatar is an autocracy governed by a hereditary emir, who has absolute say over all governmental decisions.
Qatar, an energy-rich Gulf Arab country, follows an ultraconservative form of Islam known as Wahhabism like neighbouring Saudi Arabia. However, alcohol sales have been permitted in hotel bars for years.
Budweiser’s parent company, AB InBev, pays tens of millions of dollars at each World Cup for exclusive rights to sell beer and has already shipped the majority of its stock from Britain to Qatar in expectation of selling its product to millions of fans. The company's partnership with FIFA started at the 1986 tournament and they are in negotiations for renewing their deal for the next World Cup in North America.
