Qatar considering special courts for WC offenders

DOHA, Qatar: Qatar may create special courts during the 2022 football World Cup to deal quickly and “very gently” with alcohol-consuming fans who break the law in a conservative Muslim state where public drunkenness is prohibited, a Qatari official said on Monday.

Qatari officials have said that the 500,000 football fans expected to descend on their country during the World Cup will be allowed to consume alcohol in designated zones, but how to best balance the country’s cultural values with FIFA’s requirements for the tournament remains contentious.

“I know in South Africa there where specific courts established during the World Cup for this kind of thing, and that is something we were discussing with FIFA,” the Gulf state’s 2022 Committee chief Hassan Al Thawadi told journalists on the sidelines of a sports conference in Doha.

During its 2010 World Cup, South Africa set up 56 special courts to accelerate cases involving foreign fans so they could be dealt with before either suspects or witnesses left the country.

“In relation to drunk fans it will be as it is anywhere else, anyone who is rowdy, anyone who breaches the law, will be very gently - depending on how they react - taken care of in a manner to make sure that people are not disrupting the public order,” said Thawadi.