BeIN Sports channels disappear from UAE screens

UAE pay-television providers Etisalat and du have stopped broadcasting beIN Sports channels after a number of Arab states cut diplomatic ties with Qatar.

Subscribers attempting to access the channels have been seeing the message, ‘This channel is unavailable’, on their screens.

According to the Sport 360 website, the Qatari-operated sports channels have been “blocked” after the UAE, as well as Bahrain, Egypt, Libya, Saudi Arabia and Yemen severed links with Qatar over alleged support of Islamist terrorism and relations with Iran.

The report added that the beIN Sports website also cannot be accessed in the UAE.

Additionally, the Egypt Football Association has barred beIN Sports from covering its games and called on its clubs to follow suit.

“The Egyptian FA fully supports the long-awaited decisions of the political administration against an entity that has repeatedly tried to harm our country,” the association said. “We call on all Egyptian clubs and their personnel to suspend all activities with the Qatari sports channels on all contracts or in programming in rejection of the Qatari attitude.”

According to Sky News Arabia, Egypt’s two biggest clubs, Al Ahly and Zamalek have suspended beIN Sports’ cameras and reporters with immediate effect.

Football news website Ahdaaf added that the Saudi Arabia national team’s players and staff had been “banned from speaking to and appearing on Qatar-owned sports broadcasters beIN Sports and Al Kass.”

BeIN Sports has rights for a series of top sports properties, including the ongoing French Open tennis tournament (pictured).