The streaming service of the ongoing football World Cup in Qatar has been blocked in Saudi Arabia

The platform, Todd TV, owned by Qatari broadcaster beIN Media Group, was banned in Saudi Arabia for several years during the conflict between the two countries, but was reinstated in October 2021.

“Due to matters beyond our control, we are experiencing an outage in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which is currently the official streaming partner of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, TOD,” beIN said in a message to partners and subscribers. affecting tv. Additional information will be provided as soon as possible.”

Meanwhile, the Saudi government did not respond to a request for comment on the disruption to the World Cup’s official streaming platform, while beIN declined to comment. Tod TV is the official World Cup streaming service in 24 countries across the Middle East and North Africa.

Several users in Saudi Arabia told AFP they had been unable to access the service since the World Cup began on November 20. One said the service went down completely about an hour before the inauguration ceremony aired.

Another user said that the service still does not continue to broadcast for short duration ie more than ten minutes. Meanwhile, the “error message” that appears reads, “Sorry: The requested page violates the rules of the Ministry of Media.”

“I want my money back,” said one subscriber. It costs about 300 Saudi Riyals (about $80) per month. I have been trying to get my money back for several months but have not been successful so far.

beIN is broadcasting 22 World Cup matches in Saudi Arabia for free, including an opportunity to watch the Saudi Green Falcons perform. The Saudi football team stunned the world last Tuesday by defeating Argentina by two goals to one, but the Saudi football team lost to Poland by two goals on Saturday afternoon.

Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, 37-year-old Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, launched a regional boycott of Qatar in June 2017. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut ties with Doha over accusations that it supports extremists and is too close to arch-rival Iran.

The beIN media group was banned in Saudi Arabia during MBS’ (Mohammed bin Salman) boycott of Qatar, but Riyadh announced last October that it was lifting the ban. The move paves the way for Riyadh to acquire England’s Newcastle United football club through a Saudi-backed consortium.