Gulf-Qatar crisis leaves its mark on sports
Amid the ongoing diplomatic crisis between Qatar and a number of major Arab nations, the Qatari sports channel beIN has been banned in several countries.
Despite efforts by Qatar's Al Jazeera TV to distance its sports channel from the politics associated with the Al Jazeera brand — renaming the affiliate to beIN Sports several years ago — the channel has nevertheless been affected by the ongoing battle between Egypt, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia and Bahrain on the one hand, and Qatar on the other, after these countries decided June 5 to cut ties with Qatar. The Saudi Ministry of Culture and Information decided to block the website of beIN Sports on June 12, while Bahrain's Ministry of Information banned on June 13 the import of beIN Sports receivers and stopped the sale and renewal of subscriptions to these sports channels.
Meanwhile, a number of Arab technicians, commentators, analysts and soccer stars have told beIN Sports they will not appear on its shows. Chief among these are Saudi commentator Fahd al-Otaibi, UAE commentator Ali Saeed al-Kaabi and former Egyptian soccer star Ahmed Hossam, known as Mido.
Saudi sports newspaper Sada reported in a press release that all Saudi sports commentators and analysts working for beIN Sports had revoked their contracts with the channel.
The Egyptian Football Association announced in an official statement June 6 that it boycotted and stopped dealing with the beIN Sports network. Meanwhile, Egyptian club Zamalek decided June 5 to prevent the channel from entering the club to cover any Zamalek event or conference.
