Uefa and Saudi Arabia row over pirate station showing World Cup matches

An angry row has broken out between Saudi Arabia and Uefa over a pirate satellite TV station operating out of the country and showing World Cup and Champions League matches illegally.

The pirate station, called BeoutQ, is connected to the political dispute between Saudi Arabia and 2022 World Cup hosts Qatar and it has broadcasted the Qatar-owned BeIN Sport’s coverage without permission.

After Uefa issued a statement condeming the piracy and stating that BeoutQ was based in Saudi Arabia, the country’s sports minister hit out by criticising the Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin as a man “of many faces,” whom he had refused to meet.

Uefa then responded to Turki al-Sheik saying on its Twitter account: “Uefa was quite surprised by a tweet of (at)Turkióalalshikh, as the Uefa President has never heard of this person and he therefore would have no reason to meet him.”

Fifa described BeoutQ as a “pirate channel” in a statement last week but did not link it to Saudi Arabia, whose leaders are close to the Fifa president Gianni Infantino.

Uefa confirmed BeoutQ had illegally screened Champions League games during the past season, saying: “Uefa considers that illegal piracy of live football, particularly on the scale of that being carried out by BeoutQ poses a significant threat to European football,” the statement said.

Within hours, al-Sheikh posted a series of 10 tweets that praised the Crown Prince and Infantino, but targeted Ceferin without naming him.

The Uefa president “is trying to meet me, but I am telling him that I do not like to meet men of many faces,” the Saudi minister said.

“If you want to meet, you should have a clear stance on fair issues,” al-Sheikh wrote, “including the monopoly and politicization of sports by beIN SPORTS, which you force us to watch without taking into account the feelings of 30 million Saudi citizens and all the Arab countries’ whose opinions and views had been disregarded.”

BeIN was trying “to propagate and implement Qatar’s government agendas,” Al-Sheikh wrote. “Much remains to be said about the World Cup 2022.”

Al-Sheikh then described Infantino as “a dear friend for whom the Kingdom (of Saudi Arabia) and I hold a great respect.”

In recent months, Fifa’s leader has promoted a Saudi-backed $25 billion, 12-year offer for new and revamped competitions which Uefa and Ceferin have publicly resisted.