Anyone who has visited the nations of the Persian Gulf has witnessed their quiet collective angst over alcohol. Although banned in most locations, booze has long been understood as crucial to the global aspirations of the ruling elite and thus made available to non-Muslim foreigners in luxury hotels, with a highly taxed emphasis on vintage wines and fancy cocktails at a hefty price.
In nations like the United Arab Emirates, the palpable ambivalence over alcohol is symptomatic of the omnipresent internal battle in these authoritarian nations between traditional religious adherence and the ever-growing secular ambitions of a part of the world where capital flows like oil.
All of that blew up Friday when the ever-shadowy conservative forces in Qatar reasserted themselves and defeated even the governing body FIFA and the mighty brand Budweiser, whose parent, the Belgian company AB InBev, had ponied up $75 million in tournament sponsorship money (chump change in Qatar) on the assumption that it would be able to sell its beer to visiting fans attending the World Cup, which kicks off Sunday.
In a stunning 11th-hour reversal after years of negotiations (Qatar was awarded the World Cup in 2010), the beer tents at the glistening new stadiums were nixed and thirsty visiting fans left only with Bud Zero to imbibe, hardly an appetizing prospect for most.
For many soccer fans around the world, this was yet another indication this would not be a normal World Cup.
Already domestic soccer leagues have been forced to pause all their matches after the international tournament was moved from the traditional summer to avoid the potentially lethal heat in Qatar. Now beer — traditionally a working-class drink synonymous with the global sport of the masses — was gone from the stands too. Only wealthy sponsors and muckety-mucks will get to drink their vintage Scotch whisky at a segregated external “fan zone.”
Soccer fans will, of course, survive without their $14 brewskis at the stadium. They’ll likely run into less trouble and wake up with less of a headache. But it’s an indication of the difficulty faced by global sport in joining with the oil-rich nations of the Middle East with their spotty records when it comes to press freedoms, conditions for migrant workers and human rights.
The soccer players don’t have to play in the summer sun, but that consideration was not afforded to the multitudes of migrant laborers building the new stadiums under brutal conditions.
As for gay rights, or the lack of them, same-sex sexual acts remain illegal in Qatar, on threat of up to three years in prison. Sex between all unmarried people is technically illegal, too.