From what I can gather from news reports, Budweiser will remain. Their alcoholic beer can be consumed, but nowhere near a game venue. However, their non-alcoholic beer, Budweiser Zero, will be available pretty much everywhere at all times. So Bud will still be making money, though perhaps not as much as it had hoped.
But that’s today. Given that yesterday had different rules, who knows what the Qataris might mandate tomorrow?
Brazil and Argentina have the best shot. Spain and France are pretty good. England might win their group but are very unlikely to win. It’s always hard to count out Portugal and The Netherlands. Croatia and Belgium might surprise.
Some groups are much, much stronger than others. Canada will do well to win a game (dare I dream two)? They are probably better than Mexico or the US this year. Uruguay should be higher on the list, a good bet at +4000.
Looking forward to it.
It’s their country. Their rules.
A fact North Americans and Europeans have a hard time comprehending
And it’s a “World” Cup. World is much bigger than those two continents
The English team find playing in the heat problematic.
It was 33C. 
Maybe you should have gone a week earlier to acclimitise.
Hey, Spain got screweder than Italy. Italy losing was schadenfreude at the time, Spain losing was tragic and cheating!
So fans will just need a discreet flask full of vodka to top the beer ersatz up?
Today the Qataris have decreed that the paid “fans” will have their “allowance” cancelled. What are they supposed to do, leave? Like budweiser? Too late for that, most are already there or on their way.
I guess this part is no longer in force:
According to the terms and conditions of the Fan Leader Network, initially revealed by the Dutch broadcaster NOS, travellers have been asked to promote the tournament and the experience as part of the trip. Key to the deal will be “‘liking’ and re-sharing third-party posts”, and fans have reportedly been asked to flag social media content critical of the event.
BTW: Fan Leader Network is good. Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, the Qatari agency responsible for the World Cup, is even better.
Well there’s your knowledge of association football on display right there.
Yeah. I never expected they’d allow booze. But… Why didn’t they say so before selling tickets? Oh, never mind.
It’s not a problem comprehending that fact. What is unfathomable is what possessed FIFA to give Qatar the tournament in the first place. The assurance given was that normal repressive rules would be relaxed for this period. The Qatar authorities seem to be backtracking on that and who knows how much further that will go.
It’s an obscence clusterfuck as expected but it has nothing to do with European or North American parochialism.
That shows little understanding of the game.
It is a winter sport in the UK, we very rarely play in temperatures anywhere near that level. It isn’t a game well suited to high temperatures. The 33C you are sneering at is above the danger level at which specific “cooling breaks” are required.
The whole point of bringing the tournament to Qatar in winter was to avoid problematic 30+ C temperatures.
Looks like Tubi has “channels” within its app and I am presuming(guessing?) that is where this fast channel thing will exist once matches begin tomorrow.
The England squad left for Qatar on 15th November. Their last English Premier League games were two days earlier on the 13th.
This World Cup is notable for the lack of pre-tournament preparation time, for European sides at least. There’s normally a few weeks before a tournament to prepare and play a couple of friendly games.
Big deal. I have played football in 40C. It can be done. And 33C is nothing. It’s about as hot as Rome, Athens and Madrid in the summer and I rather suspect that you wouldn’t have any issue with a WC played there in the summer (and in Spain and Italy they have been).
If anything it’s cooler than what the summer temperature will be in the next WC. LA, Houston and Miami are hotter and the days are longer.
I don’t have any “issue” with the temperatures experienced in most summer World Cup venues. But nor do I sneer at teams, who are not acclimatised to such weather, finding it tough going.
If 33C is “nothing” why are there mandated breaks for the players when it gets that hot?
Forgive my ignorance but I am aware that massive bribery led to Qatar getting to host the event and of the beer controversy.
So, why would Qatar want to hold the event? It must be a money loser for them and it’s been a public relations disaster.
Qatar thought hosting the cup would bring global attention to its “qualities” and thought it could, with FIFA’s help, whitewash the criticism. And Infantino tried to do exactly that with his recent pre-tournament speech.
Fox Sports has been largely compliant as well but the bulk of the serious US soccer media has been much more forthcoming about A. what a repressive society the country is and B. how much corruption was involved on locating the WC there.
Hey, but the Qataris made a boss move banning beer at the last minute so they got that going for them.
The fact the US lost the WC to Qatar surely has zilch to do with it.
They are a rich country. They offered the best deal. The people who lost called it “bribes”. As opposed to what’s the PC term, lobbying.
In the time since 2010 (when they got the Cup) and now, the Qataris fell out hard with their GCC Neighbour’s over political issues . Those guys have been spreading a steady diet of propaganda, which has been happily lapped up by the N American and European press, not that they need much encouragement, they (especially the latter) really haven’t liked the fact that football is swiftly becoming a actual global sport and threatening what the think Ian their birthright (we can see some examples of that in this thread). Apparently the only job that non Euros have in football, is to cut cheques, buy merchandise and drive up broadcasts revenue by providing eyeballs . 
The sad thing is that there was indeed a lot to critique Qatar about, but the ceaseless propaganda has made even spot on criticism suspect.
Yeah. When they think of those great Bayern team, people think of Lahm, first. Not Robben, Riberery, Mueller, Nauer, the Pig rider, Boetang.
Or the German sides, it’s Lahm. Not Bastian, or Mueller, or Kroos, Klose, Ballack, Khediera, Ozil, Gotze, Hummels. /S.
You are quite wrong about that.
Lahm was one of the best defenders of his time, the captain of the 2014 WC champion, Champions League winner and 8 times Bundesliga champion with Bayern. He was lauded by his coaches throughout his whole career, some of the best coaches in the world. Yeah, what a shitty career.
ETA: just did a little search. Pep Guardiola for instance called him “the perfect player” and “the most intelligent player I’ve ever coached”.
And concerning that, their job next week will be to beat the other teams. We start with six groups, twentyfour Nations, ten European contenders. Let’s see how they all progress, then talk about jobs.