Ban on Beer Is Latest Flash Point in World Cup Culture Clash

The tiny but fabulously wealthy Gulf nation of Qatar has spent 12 years preparing to host soccer’s World Cup, a marathon of planning and patience during which it has redrawn an entire nation by building stadiums and hotels, roads and sidewalks, even a gleaming new subway system.

Yet it was not until Friday that it finally settled on what to do about the sale of beer during the tournament, and the decision — to the consternation of the roughly 1 million fans set to arrive in the coming days —...