This should be interesting. If there’s one thing the World Cup is associated with when it is played every four years is drunk fans. That’s not going to happen this time when the tourney kicks off in a matter of days; if it does, there could be many people in trouble because of it.
In a shocking last-minute change of direction, liquor sales will be what the US Men’s team’s chances are of winning the tournament; zero.
The tourney is in Qatar, and guess what? The sale of alcohol is highly restricted there. The country also didn’t have a soccer stadium when they received the green light to host the tourney, and that didn’t stop FIFA from taking the cash they were offered and staging the massive event in the desert.
This is going to be one heck of a mess. Wait, potential disaster out be a better description.
Initially, there was an agreement that Qatar would allow Budweiser, one of the top sponsors of the event, to sell beer at games in a discreet manner. That’s off the table now too.
Here’s part of an announcement from FIFA.
“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 the sales points of beer from Qatar’s FIFA World Cup 2022 stadium perimeters.”
Imagine the outrage from Budweiser, which paid $75 million to be the beer sponsor for the World Cup.
Here’s what they tweeted, then deleted. “Well, this is awkward.”
That’s putting it mildly.
Is there an international sports organization that, on the surface, appears to be more corrupt, greedy, and small-thinking than FIFA?
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