A SCOTTISH craft brewery is to donate a portion of its profits to human rights organisations throughout the entirety of the World Cup.
BrewDog – a multinational brewery which is headquartered in Ellon, Aberdeenshire – has announced that for the duration of the football tournament all profits from their Lost Lager will be donated to registered charities fighting human rights abuses in Qatar.
In a statement the company has criticised the decision to hold the tournament in Qatar, where male homosexuality is illegal and thousands of migrant workers have died since the country was awarded the responsibility of hosting the event.
We're donating all profits made from Lost Lager sold during the World Cup to causes fighting human rights abuses. pic.twitter.com/5OTA9Gn71G
— BrewDog (@BrewDog) November 7, 2022
It said: “This isn't a World Cup. It's a World F*Cup. Football's been dragged through the mud, before a single ball's been kicked. Let's be honest: Qatar won it through bribery. On an industrial scale.
“Football is meant to be for everyone. But in Qatar, homosexuality is illegal, flogging is an accepted form of punishment, and it's OK for 6,500 workers to die building your stadium.
“That's why we're kicking off. And we're putting our money where our mouth is, with all the profits from our Lost Lager sold during the tournament going to fight human rights abuse.
“We're proud to be launching BrewDog as an anti-sponsor of the World F*Cup. To be clear we love football, we just don't love corruption, abuse and death.
“So join us. Let's raise a glass to the players. To the fans. To free speech. And two fingers to anyone who thinks a World Cup in Qatar makes sense.”
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon calls on world leaders to 'deliver' on climate pledges
However, despite blasting the decision to hold the World Cup in Qatar BrewDog will still be broadcasting all the matches in their pubs.
The company said they believe that showing the games will only result in more people buying their beer and therefore increasing the amount of money given to charity.
It comes as Qatar’s foreign minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al Thani dismissed negative coverage of the upcoming tournament as “misinformation”.
In an interview with Sky News al Thani said that “preaching from a distance” was not a solution and claimed that criticism of the event from Western nations was being viewed as “arrogant”.
He said: "What about their own problems within their countries, which they are turning a blind eye? Honestly, not me or the Qatari people only, but there's a lot of people from around the world who are just seeing this as a sense of arrogance.
"A sense of people who cannot accept a small country from the Middle East has won the bid to host the World Cup."
Many pundits and footballers have said they will confront the issues of human rights abuses and LGBT rights while still taking part in the tournament.
READ MORE: Top Scottish Twitter users flock to Mastodon amid Elon Musk's Twitter takeover
However, last week Fifa wrote to all 32 countries taking part in the World Cup and pleaded with them not to allow politics to detract from the football.
In a letter Fifa president Gianni Infantino and secretary general Fatma Samoura said: "Please do not allow football to be dragged into every ideological or political battle that exists."
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here