No booze? No problem for most fans at World Cup in Qatar

DOHA : Soccer fans at the almost alcohol-free World Cup are ready to pay high prices for a beer, a few have tried to smuggle booze into stadiums but most simply accept that drinking is off limits at the first tournament in a Muslim country.

World soccer governing body FIFA reversed course in mid-November, two days before the first match kicked off, and announced that no alcoholic beer would sold at stadiums in Qatar where it is an offence to drink alcohol or be drunk in public.

While beer is available at designated World Cup fan zones and in some hotels, the hassle and the cost of finding alcohol - half a litre is sold for 50 Qatari riyalis ($13.70) in fan zones - are simply too much for many supporters from countries where beer is typically part of the match-day routine.

"For me, it's tradition having a beer, watching a game, enjoying the game with friends," said Stefaan Pacquee, a Belgian doctor who travelled to Qatar from his home in Sydney, Australia, as he made his way into a stadium before Belgium's 2-0 defeat by Morocco on Sunday.

He said he had his first beer-and-football experience aged 16 with his father.

"So I miss it. And I don't think the Budweiser Zero is going to compensate for that. But hey, we're here, the weather's beautiful, it's a great atmosphere," Pacquee said.

LARGELY DRY

Germany fan Christian Kopatsch said alcohol was often banned at matches in his home country that were considered to be at high risk of violence among supporters, so the largely dry World Cup was not a huge adjustment for him.

He said he noticed a change in the atmosphere where, apart from minor skirmishes between a few fans of Mexico and Argentina, there have been no reports of violence, in contrast to trouble that broke out in Belgium