The Official Emblem of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™️ is unveiled in Doha’s Souq Waqif on the Msheireb – Qatar National Archive Museum building. (Photo: Christopher Pike/Getty)

The World Cup in Qatar is fast approaching. Besides football/soccer, alcohol seems to be at the forefront of people’s minds. One man took this to another level by creating a detailed map of where to get booze.

A Seattle-based aerospace salesman Ed Ball create a Qatar Alcohol map as “something useful for myself,” according to Yahoo Sports. Ball ended up sharing the map with a few friends and US soccer fans. Since then, the map has had over 300,000 views by people from around the world. 

Qatar does not explicitly ban alcohol. However, it has strict laws and early on the World Cup organizers even considered banning alcohol from the event altogether. Despite alcohol being available it cannot be advertised.

Budweiser as the official beer of the World Cup has had to get creative about marketing its products. As previously reported, the brand has restricted explicit mentions of Budweiser and Budweiser Zero to certain areas of the stadium and places it is licensed to sell across the city. 

On Monday, Qatari organizers announced they are working to relocate Budweiser-branded beer stations at eight stadiums. The New York Times reported that the county’s royal family wants the beer tents moved because they were too prominent. Budweiser representatives said they were told of the new plan on Saturday which is only eight days before the tournament’s first game. 

Needless to say, the World Cup organizers are unlikely to advertise Ball’s detailed map. Ball began curatoring his map after noticing that, although hotels are often the best place to find alcohol in Qatar, there was not an all-encompassing list of them.

The initial list was quite incomplete but then the members of the American Outlaws, US soccer’s largest supporters group, began also offering recommendations. 

Ball estimates he spent more than 100 hours curating his map. This included emailing hotels, pubs and restaurants along with adding happy hour notes, contact info and reviews. He also included details about metro stops. Ball’s list includes almost bars, restaurants and clubs.

This google supported map will provide much-needed assistance to people visiting Qatar for the World Cup and even after. The locations will be of great help to anyone looking to enjoy their vacation and imbibe responsibly.

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