Next year, in 2022, when it comes to football, history will be made. Why? Because the Middle East country, Qatar, will become the first Arab nation to hold the 92-year-old event. This selection happened in 2010 when the FIFA Executive Committee awarded the tournament to Qatar. Shortly after, the German newspaper, Bild, reported that there had been corrupt goings-on within FIFA and the rulers of Qatar. However, that is history. The fact is, Qatar will host the tournament next year.
Qatar, as you no doubt know, is an Islamic country and Sharia Law is the main source of legislation as per the constitution of the country. In other words, Islam more or less dominates all aspects of life. There are many things that are allowed in other parts of the world but are forbidden in Qatar; drinking alcohol is one of them - or is it? And I do have experience of this country, having worked there during 2007 - 2008.
According to Sharia Law alcohol is prohibited to be consumed while living in Qatar. It is considered a crime but I can tell you otherwise. Now if you are an Arab and caught drinking alcohol you would be arrested and, after having been found guilty in court, you'd be flogged and jailed. If you are an expat working in Qatar well it's different.
Qatar has, over the past twenty years or so, given some relaxation to foreigners allowing them to drink alcohol in Qatar. If you are an expat and a resident of the country you can buy alcohol from the Qatar Distribution Company. The Qatar Distribution Company has very strict conditions to be followed while selling alcohol in the country. Generally, they sell to only those who have the permit of residence. This means that one has to have a work contract in Qatar to buy alcohol.
But what about hotels? Well, I lived in the capital, Doha, and would get a chartered bus to my work place, the Ras Lafan ‘Industrial City’, a sprawling mass of gas plants and storage facilities about 20 miles north of Doha. Anyway, some of us expats would go out on a Saturday night for a drink. Our ‘local’ was the Sheraton Hotel. Note that there are no pubs in Qatar, only a handful of five-star hotels that are allowed to sell alcohol; only FIVE STAR!
Corruption does exist in Qatar and by corruption, I’ll say only this. Every Saturday night in Doha when we went for a drink in the Sheraton, at exactly nine o’clock, the bar upstairs where we enjoyed a pint, allowed a bunch of Filipino ‘ladies of the night’! Yes, prostitution did exist. They would come up to you if you were at the bar or to your table and basically would chat you up. No bullshit folks. In fact, we all learned that this was a controlled situation by the local police and government authorities.
As for the World Cup, well, I just don’t know how the authorities are going to cope. Yes, you can visit the five-star hotel bars and have a drink. But be warned that if, after you’ve had a heavy drink and walk to your apartment half-pissed and the cops see you, you’ll be arrested. So beware! And with maybe 100,000 football fans descending on the city next year, well, I can only see chaos. We’ll see!
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