Qatar World Cup Faces New Edict: Hide the Beer
June 25, 2011
JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia – In a historic moment for Qatar, the country which has gone from hosting the most lucrative sporting event in the world to being banned from holding the World Cup for the first time has announced plans to introduce a secret system into every stadium and bar during the World Cup.
The ban from hosting the World Cup in Qatar has been in place since June 1. (A version of this article appeared at the Center for Public Integrity Web site)
The ban is due to a ruling by the Supreme Court of Qatar which prohibited the country from holding any sporting event that would be against the law of the country, including the FIFA World Cup.
The Supreme Court issued a ruling on May 11, 2010 which stated that “the FIFA World Cup and the various events related to it are incompatible with the nature and principles of public morality.”
The Supreme Court also issued a ruling in March on a decision by the Qatar Organizing Committee which stated that the World Cup was “outside the limits of the sovereignty and integrity of the state and there is a high probability that the public order will be adversely affected by its operation.”
The ruling on the World Cup stated that even the host country has the right to hold the World Cup but that the ruling was issued to give “public order and social stability a chance to develop and not to be endangered by the events and activities of the World Cup.”
In an interview with the Qatar Daily, Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said that the ban could be reversed if the ruling were overturned. He also said that plans were in place to make Qatar the safest safe country in the Middle East. The Qatar Daily also quoted Al-Thani.
In addition to the World Cup, the country will hold the Asian Cup in Doha and the King of Spain’s Cup in Doha.
The ban also comes two years after the country was banned from hosting the Olympic Games. Qatar’s soccer federation recently announced that it had reached an agreement with the International Olympic Committee to hold the World Cup but the ban from hosting the World Cup remained in place.
Qatar also had plans to host the Asian Football Confederation’s Asian Cup to be held in conjunction with the World Cup. However, the Asian Football Confederation and FIFA announced that the event wouldn’t be held in Qatar because it
