From sex toys, to pork products and skimpy outfits… items banned at Qatar World Cup

The thousands of English and Welsh football fans heading to the Qatar World Cup this month have been warned to be careful what they put in their suitcases due to the plethora of contraband items that could land them fines, in a jail cell or deported back to Britain.

The Foreign Office has issued guidance to supporters urging them to ‘respect local traditions and customs’ including public displays of affection, dressing modestly and any drunken behaviour.

Those who do travel will face draconian rules from the moment they land in Qatar. Supporters should avoid purchasing duty-free booze because the importation of alcohol is illegal. And anyone found taking it into the country will have their stash confiscated and could face imprisonment. 

Importing any pornography and sex toys, pork products and religious books into Qatar is also illegal with all luggage scanned at Hamad International Airport Arrivals Hall and contraband seized. Any drugs bought over the counter such as codeine must come with a prescription note or will be taken away.

World Cup chiefs are expecting fewer fans from the UK than usual – with many put off by alcohol bans and ‘shoebox’ accommodation. There are also deep concerns about allowing a conservative state with a poor human rights record and appalling treatment of the LGBTQ community to host a World Cup.

Only about 3,000 to 4,000 Three Lions supporters, and up to 3,000 cheering on the Wales team, are likely to travel to Qatar this month. Up to 100,000 England fans would be expected to attend a tournament elsewhere in the globe.

The 7,000 UK visitors is much less than at previous tournaments, with some fans complaining of overpriced accommodation, strict rules on drinking and socialising and excessively hot conditions in the tiny Gulf state.

Qatar is a strict Muslim country and drinking alcohol is prohibited except in high-end hotels and a dedicated open-air ‘fan zone’ along the seafront.

Thanks to a ‘sin tax’ applied to all alcohol sales during the tournament, drinks in the fan zone are expected to cost £13 a pint, with prices in the top hotels rising to an eye-watering £80 a beer during the semi-finals and final.

Drinking anywhere else, along with betting, swearing, vaping and any public displays of affection – for both gay and heterosexual couples – are offences that can lead to arrest.

Police ‘peacekeepers’ are even being deployed to Qatar to help boisterous football fans avoid arrest at the World Cup.

Specialist UK officers will intervene to ‘calm down’ supporters who risk breaching strict morality laws.

Drinking alcohol outside fan zones, swearing and public displays of affection are all offences that can lead to arrest in the hardline Islamic country.

Qatar is hiring hardened police officers from Pakistan and Turkey to help enforce law and order during the tournament, which starts on November 20.

And for the first time at a World Cup, Britain is sending a contingent of 15 police officers to help fans avoid confrontation with the security forces. These peacekeepers — known as ‘supporter engagement officers’ — will act as intermediaries to try to ‘de-escalate’ situations.

While the England’s squad’s wives and girlfriends will be living it up aboard a £1billion floating palace dubbed ‘HMS Wag’, the luxury liner MSC World Europa which will sail offshore, ordinary fans face a more modest prospect.

Qatar’s tourism chiefs have trumpeted basic cabins costing £230 a night which will be home to thousands of fans during the tournament which runs from November 20 to December 18, but unimpressed supporters have dubbed them ‘shoeboxes in the desert’.

The brightly-coloured huts near Doha airport have two single beds, a toilet and a shower and air conditioning – vital in the 90F (32C) temperatures.

Some 60 per cent of the 6,000 cabins in the supporters’ village – where fans without stadium tickets can watch the matches on a large TV screen – have already been booked up.

Fans are being warned that a trip for the whole tournament could cost them upwards of £5,000, including travel and accommodation. Some supporters have decided to base themselves in nearby Dubai due to a lack of affordable hotels in Doha.

As if the booze bans or high prices are not sobering enough, fans have also been advised by health experts to steer clear of camels, owing to an outbreak of Camel flu, or MERS-CoV, which can be transmitted to humans.

Unlike Covid-19, there is no vaccine or treatment and fans following England and Wales have been warned to heed UK Government advice to avoid the animals, which are a common sight in the Middle Eastern country.

The Qatari authorities have repeatedly stressed that ‘everyone is welcome’ in their country for what they are billing as the greatest ever World Cup, and the first to be held in the Middle East.

The Qataris have spent a fortune getting everything ready for the fans, spending an astonishing £185billion, more than 10 times the previous most expensive World Cup, the £15billion Brazil spent for the 2014 tournament. Qatar has 50 new hotels, including a Waldorf Astoria, a Fairmont Raffles and the Lusail Winter Wonderland.

There will be a kitesurfing resort for water sports, a yacht club and an eco-friendly desert resort at the most expensive tournament in history.

 With eight stadiums in an area around the size of Yorkshire, there will be 110 metro trains and 4,000 buses a day to ferry fans around.

Qatar is a virtually crime-free country, and it is shipping in thousands of police officers from Turkey and Pakistan to enforce law and order during the tournament.

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British police are sending a squad of ‘peacekeepers’ to help boisterous football fans avoid arrest. 

The highly experienced UK officers will intervene to ‘calm down’ any supporters who risk breaching strict morality laws.

For the first time at a World Cup, Britain is sending a contingent of 15 police officers to help exuberant fans avoid confrontation with the security forces. 

These peacekeepers – known as ‘supporter engagement officers’ – will act as intermediaries to try to ‘de-escalate’ situations.

British police chiefs have spent months talking to authorities in the Gulf state to plan for a smooth tournament – including explaining to their counterparts that ‘noisy’ England fans aren’t necessarily being aggressive.

The World Cup kicks off a week tomorrow (November 20) when hosts Qatar play Ecuador, with England and Wales kicking off their tournaments a day later against Iran and the USA respectively.

Earlier this month it emerged that a group of England fans will be paid by Qatar to attend the World Cup and chant on command at matches and the opening ceremony with the Welsh also signed up to a scheme branded ‘sinister’ by critics.

The 40 football supporters from each country will reportedly be instructed to deliver positive messages about their experience in the Gulf state and report critical social media posts.

The idea is that the fans should sit together, singing and waving flags for the television cameras, The Times claims. 

Influencers and celebrities have also reportedly been signed up by Qatar, which counts David Beckham as an official ambassador.

Supporters from Wales have also signed up to the so-called Fan Leader Programme, along with 30 other nations’ fans. But critics have said they are being used as part of a ‘sinister, distasteful’ marketing exercise.

In return for staying in Qatar for a minimum of two weeks, they will enjoy free flights and accommodation as well as £60-a-day spending money on a pre-loaded card from tournament sponsor Visa.

They will also reportedly receive complimentary tickets to the opening ceremony and matches having signed a ‘code of conduct’ before they take off for Doha on November 17.   

They will be urged to post favourable comments about the tournament on social media and report ‘any offensive, degrading or abusive comments’ to organisers, preferably with screenshots. 

One document seen by the newspaper, sent to fan leaders, says of the opening ceremony: ‘In celebration of the fans around the world, over the period of five minutes, fan chants from each nation will be played and you will be expected to stand up, sing the song/chant, wave your flags and represent your country.

‘The camera will focus on each national fan group in turn. We will share with you the chant/song selected from your country to ensure you are familiar with it.’ 

In bold red letters it adds: ‘Be ready in your shirt, flags and scarves to cheer and shout.’

The English Football Association have said they found out the full details of the plan from the media and claim they are not involved.

A spokesman said: ‘We were told this was an opportunity to engage with fans from all competing nations to ensure that the voice of supporters was clearly heard in the planning for the World Cup and that many international football associations were being approached

‘We have had no more involvement with the scheme, and no sight of the “code of conduct” or any of the terms and conditions of involvement.’

The Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC) confirmed the policy of inviting groups of supporters to the finals as guests after reports by Dutch public broadcaster NOS, which said on Sunday that Qatar was paying for flights and hotels for a group of 50 Dutch fans.

‘As the tournament nears, we have invited our most active fan leaders to personally nominate a small selection of fans to join us as our guests, as a manner of thanking them for their collaboration,’ a spokesman for the SC said.

On its website, the Qatar World Cup describes its Fan Leaders programme as a network of around 400 fans and influencers who have offered ‘insights, research, content creation and message amplification’ for the tournament.

Organisers did not say how many fans they had invited, or provide financial details.

In its code of conduct, the SC asks the Fan Leaders to agree to incorporate its content in their social media posts and to support the World Cup by liking and re-sharing posts by third parties about it.

It also stated fans are not expected to be a ‘mouthpiece’ for Qatar, but added it ‘would obviously not be appropriate to disparage Qatar, the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy or the FIFA World Cup’.

Belgian and French media have also reported that selected groups of fans from these countries were offered a free trip to the World Cup by Qatar.

Yesterday it emerged that an advertising campaign featuring David Beckham that claims FIFA‘s Qatar World Cup will be carbon neutral is ‘dangerous and misleading’, climate experts and environmentalists warned. 

The promotional material featuring official ambassador Beckham, advertising the controversial tournament due to kick-off in Doha within weeks, has been reported to watchdogs in the UK and across Europe.

FIFA has made lofty promises of hosting the first carbon-neutral World Cup in history, with a carbon footprint of 3.6million tons of equivalent carbon waste which would be offset by eco-friendly initiatives.

The competition, hosted in the Gulf state for the first time in its 92-year history, has already attracted global criticism over Qatar’s murky human rights record and stance on LGBT+ issues.

But academics have now claimed FIFA has underestimated the tournament’s carbon footprint and in reality is likely to emit significantly more pollution than suggested.

Climate experts, footballing bodies, players and fans have since come together and called on FIFA’s sustainability policies to be scrapped as they penned an open letter to the governing body of international football.

Professor Mike Berners-Lee, of Lancaster University, claims the total number of carbon emissions could exceed 10million tons, which would be more than three times FIFA’s original estimate.

Kevin Anderson, a climate professor at Manchester University, described FIFA’s claims as ‘deeply misleading and incredibly dangerous’.

‘There will be a direct human cost to this tournament,’ he told the BBC.

‘This is a huge amount of emissions for one sporting event. It’s these emissions that will have an impact around the world.’

A spokesperson for FIFA said: ‘FIFA is fully aware that climate change is one of the most pressing challenges of our time and believes it requires each of us to take immediate and sustainable climate action.

‘FIFA is also fully aware of the impacts that mega-events have on the economy, the natural environment and on people and communities, and has been making substantial efforts to tackle those impacts and, at the same time, to use opportunities to maximise the positive effects of its most iconic tournament.