Qatar’s Ministry of Interior reports that three people have been arrested for reselling tickets for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 through unofficial platforms.
“The security authorities arrested three people of different nationalities for reselling FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 tickets outside the official platforms specified for that and approved by FIFA and the host country, thus violating Article No. 19 of Law No. 10/ 2021,” the Ministry said on social media.
The FIFA law in question states that FIFA has the sole and exclusive right to issue, distribute and sell tickets, and it is not permissible to issue, sell, resell, redistribute or exchange tickets without a license from FIFA or its authorized representative.
“The defendants have been referred to the competent authorities for the continuation of legal proceedings”, the ministry continued. In addition, they added that the men would be fined 250,000 Qatari riyals maximum (around 66,820 euros) multiplied by the number of tickets concerned.
With the World Cup set to begin on Sunday, these are the first illegal tickets resale arrests announced. Arrests based on the sale of counterfeit products like t-shirts and caps with the World Cup insignia were announced back in May.
Also, about a hundred counterfeit trophies, intended to be sold on the internet, were seized in early November. In December 2021, Qatari authorities inspected a factory and seized perfume to be marketed with the competition logo.
