Just two days ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, host country Qatar issued a ban on alcohol sales at the Budweiser-sponsored event — talk about a plot twist. What started with the Qatari royal family requesting that Budweiser relocate dozens of red beer tents to more discrete locations among the event's eight stadiums has morphed into a total alcohol ban.
Budweiser is the beer brand sponsoring the World Cup
— Mihnea Miculescu (@Mihnea) November 18, 2022
Qatar just flipped and ruled that no beer is to be sold at the venues
This tweet (now deleted) seemed more than fair pic.twitter.com/YDb2ItHxEg
Budweiser was told it can no longer sell any alcoholic beverages outside stadium perimeters, leaving the sponsor left with its nonalcoholic Bud Zero as its only product. Budweiser, whose parent company AB InBev has been a World Cup sponsor for nearly 40 years, reportedly paid a cool $75 million to remain the exclusive beer vendor for the colossal sporting event.
Still, Qatar is a dry country with strict regulations on alcohol, and apparently, $75 million and the prestige of the World Cup aren't enough to buy its flexibility, even though the country agreed to sell alcohol when it was vying for a spot as the host of the tournament in 2010.
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The games won't be completely dry, though. Fans seated inside the corporate hospitality boxes — which cost at least $22,000 a match — can drink beer to their hearts' content.
