Riyadh: The Ministry of Information rejected the European Football Federation (UEFA) statement claiming that the so-called entity beout Q is based in Saudi Arabia.
“After reading the irresponsible and false accusations in a UEFA press release stating that beout Q is headquartered in the Kingdom, we totally reject these allegations”, it said.
In a statement posted on the Saudi Press Agency (SPA), the ministry affirmed that the beout Q receivers are available in many countries including Qatar and Eastern Europe.
It slammed the UEFA irresponsible statement which, it said, disregards the tireless efforts exerted by the Ministry of Commerce and Investment to combat beout Q-related activities in the country.
“The Ministry of Commerce and Investment has so far confiscated thousands of receivers that could have been used in violating intellectual property rights”, said the statement, stressing commitment to the protection of intellectual property rights in the country.
The Ministry of Information has been informed that beIN Sports is a company belonging to Al-Jazeera Information Network and it is the source of this false accusation issued by UEFA.
Saudi Arabia has banned the transmission of Al-Jazeera channel in its territories since June 2017, stating that the channel represents the main Qatari media arm for supporting terrorism and inciting others to destabilise the region.
“Al Jazeera provides a media platform for terrorists to propagate their violent message. The Kingdom has also banned broadcasts by beIN Sports in Saudi Arabia for the same reason”, the said.
During the World Cup, beIN has defamed the Saudi Arabian Football Federation, insulted Saudi Arabia and its fans and has politicised the World Cup platform in violation of all rules and codes of conduct.
For these reasons Al Jazeera and its subsidiary beIN, will never broadcast in Saudi Arabia.
The General Commission for Audiovisual Media (GCAM) also rapped the UEFA statement which claimed that the so-called beout Q is based in Saudi Arabia as being “dangerous and baseless allegations”.
In the statement issued last night, the commission called upon the UEFA to apologise for the allegations, reconsider the statement, withdraw the claims and inform all other media outlest which republished the “irresponsible comment”.
(With inputs from Saudi Gazette and Sabq)