Baseball fans consider beer an indispensable part of the experience of watching the game at a stadium. Actually, alcohol is served in nearly every professional sports event, bowling included. This year, over a million fans landed in Qatar hoping to enjoy some fun juice while at the stadium, but Qatar is a conservative Muslim country that strictly controls the sale of alcohol.

FIFA had promised that alcohol would be served at the stadium, but at the last minute, they decided to ban it. They assumed there would be a lot of fans from the Arabian Gulf and Asian countries where alcohol is not part of their culture. While Qatar’s last minute U-turn policy can be frustrating to alcohol aficionados, let’s not forget that these fans are in a Muslim state and must abide by their rules.

There is a silver lining to this turn of events: Qatar penal code provides for up to 6 months in prison and a monetary fine if you are found drunk in public. I’m sure more than one fan would have ended up in jail with free room and board courtesy of Qatar, had alcohol been served.

It just goes to show, it always pays to consider the cultural context of your words and actions.