The online platform of the Qatari chain, which has the rights of the competition, has been blocked for a week in the kingdom, without explanation.
by Benjamin Barthe and Clément Martel
The Football World Cup in Qatar fascinates the inhabitants of the Saudi kingdom, who exploded with joy after the victory of their team against Argentina, Tuesday, November 22. Despite its defeat on Saturday against Poland (2-0), the national team still has the opportunity to qualify for the knockout stages, which would be a first since the 1994 World Cup in the United States. And yet, for an unknown reason at this stage, the Saudi government has been blocking access to the World Cup games games for a week.
The online broadcast service TOD, branch of the Qatari BeIN Sports audiovisual empire, which holds the rights to broadcast the tournament in the Middle East and North Africa, ceased to operate in the kingdom on Sunday, November 20, An hour before the opening of the competition. In place of matches, subscribers to the platform are entitled to an official message claiming that “the requested site breaks the regulations of the Ministry of the Media”.
This measure has aroused a mixture of frustration and dismay among Saudi football fans, which many of them expressed on Twitter. But this protest movement remains at the moment measured, because BeIN Sports remains accessible on the satellite channel. This is committed to broadcasting twenty-two of the 64 games in the clear, including those of the Saudi selection.
bad memories
The management of BeIN Sports is for the moment refuses to comment. She was content to send her customers and partners a deploring mail “the breakdown” and ensuring that “additional information will be provided as soon as they are available”. But in Doha, this mysterious affair obviously recalls bad memories.
Between 2017 and 2021, during the blockade inflicted in Qatar by its neighbors in the Gulf, including Saudi Arabia, in retaliation for its refusal to follow their anti-Iranian and Muslim anti-frills line, BeIN Sports had done the Fresh of a sabotage operation of a magnitude never seen in the history of television. During this whole period, all of the contents of the sports channel, which has the exclusivity not only of the World Cup, but also of the Champions League and the main European championships, had been siphoned by a pirate chain, Beoutq.
The operation had been orchestrated from the Saudi territory, at the instigation of the authorities of Riyadh, and in particular of the Crown Prince Mohammed Ben Salman, known as “MBS”, who, at the same time, had withdrew his Sports in BeIN Sports dissemination license in the country. Overnight, this emblem of the Soft Power Sportif Qatari had disappeared from the screens of the kingdom, in favor of Beoutq, making losing billions of dollars on the Doha chain.
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