Football fans face paying up to £80 per pint in Qatar during World Cup

Football fans heading to Qatar for the World Cup have to pay up to £80 a pint as part of extortionate drink deals on offer in the quintessentially teetotal Muslim kingdom.

Champion’s Bar at the Doha Marriott Hotel, which bills itself as the ‘best sports bar’ in town, is selling tickets to watch the final for £240 including food and three drinks, meaning every beer or glass of wine costs up to £80.

Meanwhile, other hotels in Qatar – one of the few places where you’re allowed to drink due to strict Sharia laws – are stopping or raising the price of their usual promotions, with fans facing prices of £11 a pint or more.

Even those hoping to watch games in World Cup fan zones – where drinking will only be allowed at certain times – will have to pay upwards of £7 for a beer.

Football fans have to pay up to £80 a pint as part of exorbitant drink deals offered by hotels in Qatar – one of the few places where it is possible to buy a drink (file image)

Qatar will become the first Muslim country to host a World Cup when matches begin in two weeks, but the tournament has been mired in controversy from the start.

Allegations of corruption have been leveled at Fifa over the decision to award the tournament to Qatar, and allegations of abuse of migrant workers have continued to build up.

At least 6,500 migrant workers have died in Qatar since the World Cup was awarded a decade ago, with experts saying it is likely many were linked to venue construction and other infrastructure projects to support the event.

Doha has also faced allegations that it used efficient slave labor to carry out numerous projects.

Coupled with that, the repressive kingdom’s record of opposing human rights – including comments this week from a Qatari official that gay people are mentally ill – has also sparked controversy.

Even Sepp Blatter, the former Fifa boss who quit amid a corruption scandal shortly after Qatar were awarded the World Cup, admitted it was a “mistake” to pick them.

Millions of fans are expected to travel to tiny Qatar – with a regular population of just 300,000 – for the tournament, with England playing their first game on November 21 against Iran.

Doha hotels are canceling regular drink promotions and raising prices ahead of the World Cup, which begins on November 20

“It’s too small a country,” he told a newspaper in his native Switzerland this week.

From end to end, the Qatari peninsula is around 113 miles long – roughly the same distance between London and Bristol – and has a regular population of just 300,000 people, excluding expats and migrant workers. .

It has raised fears that facilities on the peninsula will simply be overwhelmed by the number of sports fans expected to arrive, which will likely exceed one million.

It’s those fears that have led some hotels in Qatar – The Four Seasons, Kempinski and W Hotel – to raise the prices of their regular drink deals.

Four Seasons is ending its £42 two-hour all-you-can-eat promotion and will raise the cost of its bottomless brunches from £130 to £306, according to The Sun.

The Kempinski has stopped happy hours when it usually charges £8.40 for a beer, with fans having to cough up £11 instead.

Controversy lingered over the decision to award the World Cup to Qatar, amid allegations of corruption and human rights abuses

And W Hotel will serve the last of its bottomless £108 brunches on Friday, ahead of the tournament’s opener next weekend.

A Four Seasons employee said, “We wouldn’t cope if thousands of fans tried to take advantage of our happy hours, so we had to shut them down.”

The 2022 World Cup kicks off on November 20 when hosts Qatar take on Ecuador, with England playing their opener against Iran on Monday.

If England are top of their group as expected, their next game will be on December 4 in the Round of 16.

The quarter-final matches will be played on December 9 and 10, the semi-finals will take place on December 13 and 14, while the final will be played on December 18.