Confused after expecting a lot for a World Cup special
Budweiser, the world’s biggest beer company, is struggling in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. The Associated Press and the New York Times reported on the 15th (Korea time) that Budweiser is moving its beer booths in eight stadiums where World Cup games are being held to an inconspicuous location at the request of Qatar’s royal family. Budweiser couldn’t hide their embarrassment, saying, “We were given a unilateral warning to change locations suddenly before opening day on the 8th.”
Budweiser is an official partner of the World Cup in Qatar. Budweiser has been an official partner since 1986 and pays approximately 75 million dollars (approximately 99.3 billion won) to FIFA every four years. There’s a reason why Budweiser pays an astronomical amount for official sponsorship. At the World Cup, fans from all over the world drink a lot of beer in the stadium. Four years ago, at the 2018 World Cup in Russia, there was a warning about a beer shortage in Moscow.
Budweiser enjoyed a special World Cup match. In particular, at the World Cup in Russia, a Budweiser beer stand was placed next to the statue of Lenin outside the Luzhniki Stadium, and it had a good publicity effect. But this time, it’s a ‘cold meal’. In Qatar, an Islamic country, drinking in public is illegal. After the controversy, the Qatari government decided to sell beer on a limited basis in accordance with ‘special circumstances’.
Reporter Jeong Se-young niners@munhwa.com
