adminDOHA. — Alcohol will be banned from streets and public places and if Qatari officials get their way even stadiums during the 2022 World Cup soccer finals, the head of the country’s tournament organising committee said on Tuesday.The comments by Hassan Al-Thawadi will further alarm football traditionalists already unhappy that the tournament will be moved to the winter because of fierce summer temperatures in Qatar.
A ban on alcohol inside stadiums — there has long been speculation about what the conservative Muslim country would do on the tricky issue of alcohol for the World Cup — could bring organisers into conflict with FIFA and powerful sponsors.
“There will be no alcohol consumption on the streets, squares and public places and that is final,” Al-Thawadi, secretary-general of the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, said in an interview printed on the website of Arabic language newspaper Al-Sharq.
“We are against the provision of alcohol in stadiums and their surroundings.” There will not be a total alcohol ban, but drinking will be permitted only in “far-away places”, said Al-Thawadi, without going into details. Drinking alcohol is not illegal in Qatar and alcohol is available in hotels, while expats who live in the Gulf emirate can buy drink after applying for a licence. — AFP.
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