Saudi ambassador tells World Cup fans: ‘You can have fun without alcohol’

“Everyone has their own culture, and we’re happy to accommodate people within the boundaries of our culture, but we don’t want to change our culture for someone else, OK?” – Prince Khalid bin Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud, UK ambassador to Saudi Arabia.

Most away football fans cannot have fun without alcohol 😆

He’s right, but equally we can say to his people “you can come here but you can’t treat women as second class citizens or abuse foreign worker’s rights”. Annoying as pissed up football supporters are, I think his country’s faults are a teeny bit worse.

Might get a lot of hate for this, but he’s not wrong. No nation should be obligated to accommodate anyone else’s nationals or cultures, particularly when it is contradictory to its own.

However, when you submit your nation to host an INTERNATIONAL event on a scale of the World Cup, then you should also be ready to accept the culture of the event. If that’s not something a government or nation can tolerate, that’s perfectly fine, but don’t submit yourselves to host.

Though i suppose if we’re being honest, this has been more of a business transaction, for FIFA, than a genuine and fair selection process.

It’s true you can have fun without alcohol, and I really don’t mind sitting in a stadium without a beer.

As long as I’ve got a sausage or bacon sarnie, I’ll be okay… bugger.

Oh well, as long as my gay friends are allowed to publicly express their love for each other at the match… okay, they can’t go.

Okay, without the booze, bacon sandwiches, my best mate… it might still be worth going with the family, unless my wife and daughters are treated like second class visitors…

Looks like I’ll be doing something else while this is on then.

Fans can always stay at home and have fun watching the world cup, with alcohol

And you can still have fun with homosexuals holding hands in the stadiums.

This isn’t an issue. But the World Cup shouldn’t be there in the first place.

Reminds me of that Simpsons joke where Homer goes to a baseball game sober and is like “I never realised how boring this game is,”

you can have alcohol without fun but i don’t know about fun without alcohol lol.

I’d like to see the research behind these outlandish claims.

Tell that to the Saudis who are getting drunk every week in Bahrain

You should respect the cultures of places you visit, provided those customs are worthy of respect. I think that much is obvious.

However, this is just further proof it was a stupid idea to award the hosting job to an authoritarian theocratic dictatorship.

You can’t go with a partner if you’re not married, I think hotels don’t allow unmarried couples to share the same room.

If you don’t respect their culture then stay at home, no one will miss you.

Look at everyone learning that hardline cultures are the majority on planet earth

Allowing Saudi to host events like this is an insult

It is disrespectful to expect the Saudis to put in alcohol for football fans

You can dislike what journalists write without beheading them

Those offended by the drinks ban, there’s an easy solution – don’t fucking go to Saudi.

It’s like with Qatar. The same people who are aggressively attacking conservative Islamic values in foreign countries – desperately support the importation of as many people as possible who believe and treasure such values.