Why football fans in Ajman have nothing but World Cup woes
▶ Saudi Arabia’s sports authority chief hits at ‘exploitation’ of World Cup by Qatari-funded broadcaster after first match of tournament
Thousands of frustrated football fans in Ajman are facing World Cup woe after being cut off from the action by a lack of cable coverage.
Residents missing out have hit out at the lack of coverage – a result of not having the fibre optic cable networks necessary for packages that broadcast the tournament.
Subscribers to telecommunication companies du and Etisalat in Al Muwaihat and Al Rawda areas are among those in the emirate unable to get their footballing fix.
Etisalat broadcasts the international tournament through its E-life package, while du offers all the games as part of du Home, both of which
Football fans have started a petition against beIN Sports’ “politicisation” of its Fifa World Cup coverage.
The petition on the sports4everyone.org website claims the Qatari government-funded channel has breached World Cup broadcasting rights laws by using sport to “transmit its political agenda”.
It uses nine short clips from the coverage to state its case, including offensive comments regarding Saudi Arabia after its Cup-opening loss to Russia last Thursday.
The petition says guests talked about the “losses of the Saudi team in a biased manner and described the loss against the Russian team as a disgrace and scandal, and that the Saudi Football Federation has mobilised its efforts for the US nomination for 2026 at the expense of their national team”.
In a message addressed to Fifa President Gianni Infantino, the petition says “sport rises above politics”.
It says beIN has “exploited its rights to aggravate the dispute between Qatar and Saudi, insulting our nations in the opening match”.
“It is necessary to notify Fifa of our grievance that beIN denied our ability to watch our football team free from political exploitation.
“This violates World Cup broadcasting rights law; beIN is the only channel where we can watch our team World Cup matches. BeIN is banned in Saudi Arabia. We call on you to take immediate action against beIN.”
The petition has 47,000 signatures, including sports stars such as Ahmed Hassan, the Egyptian footballer and mostcapped male international in history.
The complaint comes a day after Turki Al Sheikh, head of Saudi Arabia’s sports authority, said the country was considering legal action against the broadcaster.
Mr Al Sheikh said beIN exploited sport for political goals in some of its commentary after Saudi Arabia’s 5-0 loss to Russia. This proves the country was correct in blocking the channel, he wrote on Twitter.
The broadcaster owns sole streaming rights across the Mena region for major sporting competitions such as the English Premier League, Spain’s La Liga and the Fifa World Cup.
The beIN channel was blocked in the UAE for more than a month last year after the boycott of Qatar by the UAE, Bahrain, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
Although the service was reinstated, it was not initially clear whether Fifa World Cup games would be streamed on du or Etisalat, and beIN was briefly unavailable on the du network a few weeks ago.
But Etisalat and du have since launched World Cup packages. Viewers can buy a package to watch all 64 games on Etisalat for Dh555, while du is charging Dh551 for the same service.
The beIN service has not been reintroduced to Saudi Arabia since the boycott, and last Tuesday it emerged that the country had shut down more than 4,000 devices streaming hacked sports channels and launched legal action against those involved.
The sweep is the latest is a series of actions taken by the kingdom to crack down on devices used to bootleg sports channels.
More than 8,000 devices have been confiscated from retailers in recent weeks, the authorities say.
Legal proceedings have been launched.
The 2018 Fifa World Cup has brought together 32 national teams, representing five sporting confederations, to Russia in celebration of sport. Tens of thousands of football fans from across the world have electrified the stadiums and generated a carnival atmosphere in host cities. And four days in, the tournament is proving to be far more exciting than anyone had predicted. Defending champions Germany were beaten by Mexico. Iceland, taking part for the first time at a World Cup, tied with their formidable Argentine opponents. Brazil, home to some of the world’s most revered footballers, only managed to draw with Switzerland. Alas, some of this region’s sporting cynosures – Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Morocco – have not got off on the best footing, although redemption could lie ahead.
So for all the questions raised about the appropriateness of staging the games in Russia, the 2018 World Cup has got off to a brilliant start. Fans of football all over will have enjoyed every moment of it. In the region, however, BeIN Sports, the Qatar-backed channel with broadcasting rights, appears determined to ruin viewers’ pleasure – and, even worse, politicise sport and subvert the World Cup’s inclusive spirit. Games telecast by the broadcaster have been obscured by a constant stream of messages about piracy and floating BeIN logos all over the screen. These messages convey a clear disregard for the viewing experience of paying subscribers. But that’s only a part of the story. Qatar has abused the privilege of Fifa broadcasting rights by suffusing sporting commentary, which by convention is neutral, with a torrent of polemical, political rhetoric directed at Saudi Arabia. The World Cup is meant to unite; Qatar is deploying its monopoly to divide. Football fans have reacted by floating a 47,000-strong petition against this blatant politicisation by Doha. Turki Al Sheikh, head of Saudi Arabia’s sports authority, is considering legal action against BeIN. Fifa needs to act urgently to intervene against BeIN’s egregious conduct. What is at stake is the tournament’s core message of inclusion.