British Tourist Arrested and Beaten for Wearing a Qatar Shirt to a Soccer Match in Abu Dhabi

Delta partners with Saudia. American partners with (and expresses great animosity towards) both Qatar Airways and Etihad.

U.S. frequent flyer members have access to travel on several Mideast airlines. Some of those carriers offer fantastic connecting options and great inflight products to see not just the Gulf region but India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and even North Africa.

And it becomes natural – except historically in the case of Saudi Arabia – to plan a stopover. In Qatar there’s the Museum of Islamic Art.


Museum of Islamic Art, Doha

Dubai is known for shopping and the tallest building in the world (Burj Khalifa) and Abu Dhabi has Ferrari World and the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. Marriott’s Al Maha Desert Resort in the UAE is spectacular and an incredible value on points through the end of this month.


St. Regis Abu Dhabi

Don’t mistake economic development and tourism for freedom, however. A British tourist was actually detained for wearing a Qatar soccer shirt during a match at the AFC Asian Cup where Qatar was playing Iraq. The man was also beaten. “Showing sympathy for Qatar” is a crime in the UAE, and subject to up to 15 years in jail.

A year and a half ago Saudi Arabia and the UAE, with additional support from Bahrain and Egypt, began a blockade against Qatar. Qatar Airways has been losing increasing amounts of money unable to fly to nearby destinations and having to route around these countries’ airspace. (It’s why their first class lounge has been empty and they’re selling access.)

Qatar and the UAE actually faced each other in the semi-finals with the former besting the latter 4-0. The Abu Dhabi sports council had purchased all remaining tickets for the semi-finals to prevent any Qatar fans from attending (though it would have been difficult for most to attend anyway). Qatar had previously beaten Saudi Arabia during the tournament.

The Qatar team flew to and from the event. Qataris traveling to the UAE require special clearance, two layers of vetting, and stop enroute either in Oman or Kuwait. (Qatar’s Sheikh attended the games, flying back and forth to Oman each day.)

In the finals Qatar bested favorite Japan 3-1, and the Japanese team was called out for how clean they left their locker room.

It’s incredible that Qatar was able to play, beat their geopolitical rivals Saudi Arabia and UAE, and that they had an actual fan in the stadium who dared to support them along the way. That man was punished.

I have to think that this will be enough of an international embarrassment that the UAE will have to back down (though they can’t un-beat the man). Nonetheless it’s a good reminder that when you travel the world you’re subject to the laws of wherever you’ve gone – even if you aren’t aware of what they are.

Surely if Delta CEO Ed Bastian could make support or sympathy for Qatar punishable under Georgia law he would do so, right?

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. Why people visit these vile cesspits is something of a mystery. No culture, no sightseeing, no fun; just a never ending array of gaudy malls in the Trump style, vulgar, flashy and ridiculously expensive.
    Oman is the only country in the Gulf worth visiting, the others strictly for transit.
    Just as bad, or worse , than this case: the British woman arrested for a European style peck on the cheek of her colleague, in a bar ( reported the the loony morals police and arrested).
    Many still cartwheel backwards to accommodate every whim and fancy of these nutters, eg the footballer detained in Thailand on a spurious warrant from Bahrain ( and ignored by the slimy weak sisters in FIFA for fear of upsetting plans for the World Cup and other issues).

  2. World: “Stop your mistreatment of our nationals.”

    Gulf States: “We have oil.”

    World: “This has all been a terrible misunderstanding.”

  3. It again proves that having tall buildings does not make them intelligent. They did not and will not learn the meaning of tolerance and nice to other person. One day every thing they brag about will disappear in the ocean. Shame to these people.

  4. Well, Pope Francis of the Roman Catholic Church, the Holy Father, Vicar of Christ, Bishop of Rome just left UAE after a two day visit as part of the UAE’s ‘Year of Tolerance’. Good thing he didn’t wear that Qatar FC jersey that Emir Al Thani gave to him a few years back. Whew, imagine Sheikh Zayed having to call his thugs to arrest him. Woulda probably made the front pages of even the NYTimes, dontchathink. I’d rather visit Qatar, thank you.

  5. +1 to Paolo. VFTW should not be shilling tourism to any of these intolerant countries. There are at least 100 others that are more worthy.

  6. I couldn’t agree more with Paolo, mallthus, and Boraxo. But I like to point out that using “Gulf” and “Gulf States” means you have already fallen for their propaganda. If you go to any history or geography book older than about 35-40 years, you’ll find there was no “Gulf” in the Middle East; that body of water has always been known as “Persian Gulf”. But as I said, I couldn’t agree more with the points being made.

  7. Lots of kids flying via the UAE have shirts with Qatar/Qatari-related logos on them. Are they going to be abused by the UAE authorities too for wearing clothes that are considered acceptable everywhere else in the world except in the handful of Arabian peninsula countries that are mega-Trump-kiss-ups?

  8. The UAE and Saudi Arabia are major Trump kiss-ups/supporters and get lots of US weapons which they are supplying to Al-Qaeda types to fight in Yemen. Welcome to what Trump enables and “protects”.;)

  9. @Fathiss. So true so true, Trump lives rent free in their brains 100% of the time.

  10. Maybe travel should not be encouraged to countries that blatantly violate human rights and who are not above targetting tourists??

  11. Pope Francis just delivered a message of peace, tolerance, and goodwill when he celebrated a historic first papal mass in Arabian Peninsula. The UAE government, Sheikhs and press were equally elated and proud by the progress made in their country where Christian worship is normally allowed only inside churches … and now this?

    I guess the boys in brown did not get the memo!

  12. I see the comments have reached the length where Gary’s Law is in effect.
    That didn’t take very long for Trump to be mentioned

  13. This man was wearing a Qatari national team jersey and cheering for the Qatari team itself. It’s only a matter of time before someone suffers the same fate for wearing a current AS Roma jersey or a Barca jersey from a year ago. Doing so is already expressly prohibited by the same law because both of those jerseys feature the Qatar Airways logo.

  14. As the leader of an organization that protected and ignored hundreds of child rapists over the past century, I would be hesitant to use the Pope as your standard bearer. And last I heard UAE is not too tolerant of gays, Israelis (even secular and peaceniks) or atheists. Having visited oppressive communist countries during the cold war I am totally supportive of anyone who wants visit the Gulf countries to witness oppression firsthand (or disprove it). But that’s not what Gary and his buddies promote – they are simply blogging about how they used miles and points to enjoy luxury first class seats and 6 star hotel accommodations in exotic locations. And for that there are many equivalent choices in places that better respect human rights.

  15. Boraxo,

    The UAE and Saudi Arabia are, proverbially-speaking, in bed with Netanyahu. Netanyahu even visited Oman’s Sultan rather recently in hopes of getting Oman to move more into the Trumpian Israeli-Saudia-UAE alliance.

  16. GUWonder: I don’t disagree, but try visiting SA with an Israeli passport stamp. There is a reason they use removable entry tickets now. Or check the atheist box on your visa application and see what happens.

  17. Since these comments are going full blown Trump, I would like to mention two items in President Trump’s State of the Union speech last night: (1) President Trump reaffirmed his strong support of Israel which means that the USA will not abandon while he is President. (2) Trump made a Holocaust Survivor front and center in his speech, which reminds everyone what happens when antisemitism rears its ugly head. I commend Trump for his strong support of Israel and the Jewish people.

  18. Criticism of Israels human rights record should not be dismissed as anti-semitism. That’s not a reasoned argument it’s a slogan and easy get out. Likewise playing the holocaust card is similar to playing the Nazi card and doesn’t address the issues.
    Personally I’m not interested in travelling to either Israel or the Gulf states but if we’re going to stop flying to countries because we don’t like their politics there’s not going to be many countries that can be visited. The United States certainly wouldn’t be on many peoples can visit list.

  19. @Peter the Painter. I disagree with you. The UN’s criticism of human rights in Israel is yet another thinly veiled attempt to destroy Israel.

Comments are closed.