When alcohol is combined with one of the biggest sporting events across the globe in the 2014 FIFA World Cup, it’s safe to assume that mass consumption of booze by rowdy fans is inevitable.
Well, that news came as quite a bit of a shock to one FIFA official.
Brazil banned the sale of alcohol at soccer games back in 2003 in an effort to cut down on fights and threats to public safety, but with Budweiser being a major World Cup sponsor, FIFA required the host country to temporarily lift the ban for the entirety of the tournament this year.
Predictably, things have gotten a little wild at the World Cup as some violence between fans of opposing teams has broken out on more than one occasion. Unpredictably, though, FIFA’s secretary general Jerome Valcke didn’t see this heightened level of drunkenness coming.
“I was amazed by the number of people who were drunken and the level of alcohol” in Brazil, he said, via The Washing Post, adding “I was a bit surprised.”
Valcke added that they’ll keep an eye on how liquor affects the experience and make changes as they see fit.
“If we think that it is necessary to control (alcohol sales) we will control them,” said Valcke. “We would never put the organization of a match at risk.”
The World Cup of drinking will be put to a serious test in 2022 when the tournament will be held in Qatar, a country where the consumption of alcohol in public is outlawed.
Photo via Twitter/@chronicleherald
