Kate Hackett
Apparently after the Qatari royals banned alcohol, Budweiser was left with quite a bit of a pickle.
Thousands of cans of beer were left piled up in a warehouse after the surprise decision to ban alcohol sales in stadiums. Budweiser had been named one of the sponsors of a tournament taking place in Qatar and was given a monopoly to sell beer at said stadium but the U-turn decision left Bud high and dry.
Soccer fans were enraged and demanded refunds from the World Cup organization after the decision came down. It’s known to have been passed with pressure from the Qatari royal family.
Meanwhile, Budweiser is facing a lot of stock just going to waste.
They are trying their best to make a good situation out of a crummy one.
First, their Twitter joked about the announcement that alcohol sales were banned on Friday. They wrote, “well, this is awkward…” but that tweet was deleted.
In its place, they wrote, “New Day, New Tweet. Winning Country gets the Buds. Who will get them?”
The copious amount of booze made an 8,000 mile journey to Qatar from breweries in London, Wales, and Lancashire.
Normally, Qatar restricts alcohol purchase and consumption to licensed hotels and restaurants. There were some exemptions planned for the World Cup to permit fans to buy beers in “fan zones” and in stadiums, but Qatar reneged on the latter part of that deal.
Now fans can only drink in “fan zones”. Pints will also be limited; they’re expensive, available only at certain times, and limited to four drinks.
Anheuser-Busch InBev, which owns Bud, said it is still ready to celebrate ” football with our consumers’ but some sales cannot go ahead due to ‘circumstances beyond our control’.”
There are not been any indications that InBev will engage in legal action with Fifa, which gave it the rights to sell beer at World Cup games.
