A graphic saying "Qatar welcomes you", which mentions several acts that should be avoided in the country, is being widely circulated on social media platforms.
The claim comes ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup scheduled to be held in Qatar, attracting visitors from around the world. The claim is being shared to indicate that refraining from such behaviour will show their respect for Qatar's culture and religion.
However, neither was the graphic uploaded on any official source, nor any such advisory has been issued by the official board.
Further, we found a tweet by the official Twitter handle of the tournament called 'Road to 2022', which mentions that the graphic is factually inaccurate and was not uploaded by an official source.
WHAT ABOUT THE GUIDELINES?
We checked the official website and social media accounts of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, but none of them had a similar graphic as the viral one. We also couldn't find any news reports which mentioned any such advisory issued by the board.
After going through the official website, we found the cultural awareness section, which mentioned some guidelines regarding clothing, alcohol, and others.
We found:
Fans will be able to purchase alcohol. It will also be available in licensed hotels and restaurants, but drinking outside of these areas is prohibited. Additionally, according to a report by the wire agency Associated Press, the tournament's organisers have allowed the serving of beer and alcohol at fan zones and stadiums.
The website does not mention homosexuality and the country restricting it. Along with this, several other things that are not mentioned on the website are - profanity, not respecting places of worship, loud music and sounds, and dating.
The United Kingdom government's travel advisory for people travelling to watch the tournament mentions explicitly that "homosexual behaviour is illegal in Qatar".
Previously, sportspersons have openly criticised the decision to hold any international sporting event in a country that criminalises and persecutes people based on their sexuality.
GRAPHIC NOT SHARED BY AN OFFICIAL BODY
We noticed the logo on the fake graphic and it said 'Reflect Your Respect'. This led us to a Twitter handle with the same name and logo.
The bio of the page mentions, "We contribute to the consolidation of Islamic values which supports the Qatari identity."
We came across the viral graphic uploaded on the handle on 1 October.
OFFICIAL BODY DENIES THE CLAIMS
The official handle of this year's tournament shared a tweet on 6 October which denied any such graphic shared by an official source.
They further mentioned that it had several factual accuracies and that fans should only rely on official sources for any information related to the tournament.
This clearly proves that the graphic which mentions the guidelines regarding the FIFA World Cup was not shared by the official board.
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