Fact Check: Are foot-ball fans sneaking in disguised beer cans in Qatar

New Delhi, Nov 25: Qatar has been in the news or controversies ever since the start of the FIFA World Cup. The country has been in the news over the treatment of migrant workers who constructed the stadiums or its views on homosexuality.

Qatar even took a decision to reverse the original plan for tournament sponsor Budweiser to sell beer around the eight sites where the games are being played. Now photos have started to do the rounds on the social media that show beer cans being sold as disguised soft drink cans.

Those sharing the photos claimed that football fans were sneaking beer inside the stadium by adding fake Pepsi or Coca-Cola covers to the cans. "Football lovers finding ways to drink alcohol at the Fifa world cup in Qatar. Fans rebrand Heineken beer cans as Pepsi in other to smuggle to the stadiums and other places after last-minute ban on alcohol by Qatari Authorities," read one post.

"Some supporters have obviously found the technique to drink alcohol in stadiums in Qatar," read another tweet. Another claimed that a few were caught by the authorities while trying to sneak beer into the stadiums using the same method.

One website reported that fans were purchasing silicon covers to cover the beer cans and sneak it into the stadium. Football fans purchase silicone can covers to disguise beer cans as Coca-Cola after alcohol sales at Qatar World Cup stadiums are banned, read the report.

Upon reverse searching the images, OneIndia learnt that these were images of Heineken ans covers with fake Pepsi wrapping. We found a 205 report that read, Saudis find huge beer shipment disguised as Pepsi.

The report said that the Saudi Arabia customs department held a smuggler who was trying to smuggle in 48,000 cans of Heineken beer. The official account of the Customs Department which had spoken about this bust.

One user on Instagram too had posted a photograph from the bust. He had captioned the photo, ' just little things like this.'

This makes it clear that a photo from 2015 is being circulated with the claim that fans had disguised their beer cans to smuggle in beer into the football stadiums. Hence we can conclude that these viral images have nothing to do with the ongoing FIFA World Cup in Qatar.