Fans Can Find Alcohol At Hotels And Qatar’s Only Liquor Store For The FIFA World Cup 2022

Guards on duty at a guarded facility surrounded by razor wire in a desolate neighbourhood outside the capital of Qatar carefully verify visitors’ passports and permissions before granting them entry. This, however, is not a jail or a high-security location connected to the present FIFA World Cup 2022. In this conservative Muslim country on the Arabian Peninsula, which adheres to the same rigorous Wahhabi interpretation of Islam as its neighbour Saudi Arabia, strict alcohol restrictions are a way of life. When officials decided to prohibit beer sales at stadiums soon before the World Cup, soccer fans travelling to Qatar for the event got a taste of that.
Yet at sporting events, corks are still being pop in expensive boxes. At dozens of hotel bars, lounges, and nightclubs with liquor permits, patrons are filling pints from beer towers. At the FIFA Fan Zone in Doha, sales of USD 14 Budweisers are unabated.Not to say that you need alcohol to fuel your life, but it’s a good time, said Ed Ball, an American who created an online map for imbibers in Doha to find bars. The idea being passed around that you can’t drink in Qatar is wrong. There are places.In conjunction to the bars, there is a general store where non-Muslim locals and guests can shop after submitting an application for a licence from the government. It is operated by the Qatar Distribution Co, a state-owned company under the control of Qatar Airways, which has the exclusive right to distribute alcohol and pork in the nation, and is situated adjacent to an Indian school in Doha’s dusty Abu Hamour neighbourhood.The establishment, which is now the only one in Qatar selling alcohol, runs on an appointment schedule, evoking the stringent coronavirus laws that prevailed in this nation up to shortly before the World Cup.Cans of pork and beans, slabs of bacon, Spam, and frozen pig pepperoni pizzas are all available in a small area of the store. Pork and alcohol both have a 100% import duty. According to Qatar, the tax money is used to enhance public services like healthcare, infrastructure, and education.Alcohol cannot be brought into the nation by visitors. Many hotels have a no-alcohol policy, so customers cannot bring alcohol inside their rooms.Comment down your views.