Why no Brits were arrested during World Cup
The World Cup in Qatar has passed without any reported arrests or police incidents involving British citizens, counter to expectations....
The World Cup in Qatar has passed without any reported arrests or police incidents involving British citizens, counter to expectations. While some have speculated that the restrictions on the availability of alcohol may have played a decisive role in the relative tranquillity of the event, Radha Stirling, CEO of Detained in Doha, believes this is a misinterpretation. “Much has been said about the impeccable behaviour of British citizens attending the World Cup, And they attribute the lack of incidents to their law-abiding conduct,” she says, “But the truth is that British citizens and other foreign nationals get arrested, fined, and detained in Qatar on a regular basis without having committed any disturbances or crimes. While certainly the respectful conduct of Brits at the World Cup is to be commended, we can deduce that it was Qatari law enforcement who were on their best behaviour since the end of November.”
Stirling suggests that authorities in Qatar restrained police abuses and frivolous arrests, uncharacteristically, precisely because the small Gulf State was under unprecedented scrutiny from the international media. “It is not so much because officials restricted access to alcohol that no British citizens were detained,” she explains, “But rather, it is because officials restricted law enforcement from carrying out their duties with the same hubris with which they normally behave when thousands of journalists and 3.4 million football fans with social media accounts are not present.