Budweiser World Cup campaign curbed, not crashed, by Qatar beer ban

BRUSSELS : A last-minute decision to ban the sale of alcohol at Qatar's World Cup stadiums will seriously limit Budweiser sales in the Gulf state, but will not derail its owner's global campaign during the tournament, industry analysts said.

Soccer world governing body FIFA's announcement of the ban on Friday, just two days before the event kicks off, leaves the world's largest brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev with at least a headache.

Budweiser, the major World Cup sponsor it owns, had been set to exclusively sell alcoholic beer within the ticketed perimeter surrounding each of the eight stadiums three hours before and one hour after each game during the four-week event.

"Well, this is awkward," Budweiser's official Twitter account read as news of the reversal emerged. The tweet was later deleted.

Budweiser has been a World Cup sponsor since the 1986 tournament in Mexico.

The event, held every four years, typically boosts beer consumption globally, and the Belgium-based maker of brands such as Stella Artois and Corona clearly wants to profit from the millions of dollars it has paid to be the tournament's official brewer.

The 2014 World Cup boosted AB InBev beer sales in host country Brazil - its second most profitable market after the United States - by 140 million litres, with extra drinking in usually weak winter months and an annual volume hike of more than 1 per centage point.

STRICT CONTROLS

But Qatar 2022 was always going to be different, as the first World Cup held in a conservative Muslim country with strict controls on alcohol, the consumption of which is banned in public.

In July, reflecting on information that the stadiums' stands would be alcohol-free, AB InBev chief executive Michel Doukeris said the tournament would