Saudi Arabia blocked Qatar-owned streaming platform from broadcasting FIFA World Cup 2022 matches

In the latest setback to the Saudi-Qatar relationship, Saudi Arabia is believed to have blocked its people from watching the live coverage of FIFA World Cup 2022. Days after announcing a national holiday in celebration of their country’s biggest win on a World Cup stage against Argentina, the Athletic reported that Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Media hadblocked a Qatar-owned streaming platform from broadcasting the matches in the country.

BeIN Sports, a Qatar-based firm which is run by the Paris Saint-Germain chairman, Nasser Al-Khelaifi, have the broadcast rights for the World Cup in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. As a matter of fact, the matches in the MENA region are divided up between 22 free-to-air games, whereas, the remaining 42 matches are supposed to be live-streamed on a platform called TOD TV, in all 24 countries.

As further reported by the New York Times, just before the start of their World Cup opener, BeIN Qatari executives were made aware that their live-streaming media platform is banned in Saudi Arabia. While all this happened when Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, sat just two seats away from Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the Qatari ruling Emir.

Meanwhile, fans back in Saudi Arabia could still watch their country’s greatest win in FIFA World Cup as one of the matches were made available free-to-air. Plus, Saturday’s other big clash against Poland will be televised live too.

Saudi Arabia stunned the world on Tuesday evening when they defeated Argentina in what is termed the greatest upset in FIFA World Cup history. Saudis were lagging behind 0-1 in the first half but made an inspiring turn-around in the second half to make it 2-1 at the end of the day. For them to qualify for the next, Saudi Arabia must repeat their heroics on the field against a potent Poland team.