Fan Guide: Laws and Customs in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia is not a difficult country to visit, but it is a specific one. The rules that matter to a football fan are clear, mostly stable, and easy to follow once somebody lays them out plainly — which is this page's job. No scare stories, no sugar-coating: the laws as they stand, the customs as they are lived, and the few points where 2034 has already been clarified.

Alcohol: the confirmed position

Alcohol is illegal in Saudi Arabia — sale, possession and consumption are all prohibited, for everyone, everywhere in the Kingdom. This is not a rule that bends for football. In February 2025, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the UK confirmed on the record that alcohol will not be sold at the 2034 World Cup, including in hotels. Later press reports suggesting a limited tourist-area relaxation were denied by Saudi authorities.

So plan for a dry World Cup, as Qatar 2022 largely was inside stadiums. The fan experience the Saudis are building leans the other way: coffee culture is a national art form, the juices and speciality drinks are superb, and the late-night cafe and restaurant scene in Jeddah and Riyadh runs to 2 am and beyond. Fans who were in Qatar know the rhythm works.

Dress, behaviour and public life

The dress code for visitors is modest and simple. In public, cover shoulders and knees; women are not required to wear an abaya or cover their hair in ordinary public spaces — that rule changed years ago — but modest dress is expected and head coverings are required inside mosques. Swimwear belongs at beaches, resorts and pools, not in the street. At religious sites, follow the posted rules exactly; they are enforced.

Public behaviour runs conservative: public displays of affection are out, swearing and insulting gestures can be offences, and photographing people — especially women — without permission is a genuine taboo. Do not photograph military or government buildings. Same-sex relations are illegal in Saudi Arabia, and public promotion of any position on the subject is not tolerated by authorities; fans should understand the legal landscape before they travel, and we state it here because a guide that skips it is not doing its job.

Drugs policy is absolute and severe: Saudi Arabia enforces the death penalty for drug trafficking, and prescription medicines are screened — check your medication against the Saudi rules before you fly and carry prescriptions. Vaping and smoking are permitted in designated areas and common in cafes.

Religion, prayer and Ramadan

Islam shapes the day. The five daily prayers structure business hours less rigidly than in the past — most shops no longer close for every prayer — but the rhythm still shows: a pause around sunset prayer, evenings that start late, and a country that takes its faith seriously without expecting visitors to share it. Non-Muslims cannot enter Makkah at all, and access in Madinah is limited to outside the Prophet's Mosque sanctuary area; respect for those boundaries is non-negotiable.

Ramadan in the tournament window is a live planning question: the holy month is expected to run from roughly mid-November to mid-December 2034, one reason a January 2035 tournament is discussed. During Ramadan, public eating and drinking in daylight is restricted for everyone in public spaces, and evenings become the heart of the day — iftar at sunset, cities awake all night. If the tournament overlaps, it will be a World Cup unlike any other, and this page will be rewritten for it in detail.

Women fans and families

Women have attended football matches in Saudi stadiums since 2018, drive their own cars, travel independently and make up a large, visible part of Saudi Pro League crowds — mixed family sections are the norm at the big grounds. Visiting women fans will find the practical experience far more ordinary than the headlines of a decade ago suggest. Standard big-city awareness applies, as it does everywhere.

Families are the centre of Saudi leisure culture: malls, corniches and fan zones are built around them, children are welcome everywhere, and a World Cup here will be a family event first. That shapes everything from stadium design to the late, food-centred evenings fans will plan around matches.

Money, phones and small print

The currency is the Saudi riyal (SAR), pegged to the US dollar. Cards and contactless payment are accepted almost everywhere — Saudi Arabia is one of the most cashless societies in the region — and ATMs are universal. Local SIMs and eSIMs are easy at airports; WhatsApp calls have historically been restricted, so check current rules for voice/video calling apps before you rely on them.

Emergency numbers: 911 is the unified emergency number in the Riyadh, Makkah and Eastern Province regions; elsewhere use 999 (police), 997 (ambulance) and 998 (fire). Save your embassy's number and your hotel's location in your phone on day one — the oldest travel advice there is, and still the best.

Football culture: the fans you will stand among

Saudi supporters are not backdrop; they are among Asia's most committed fan cultures. The big Pro League derbies — Al-Hilal against Al-Nassr in Riyadh, Al-Ittihad against Al-Ahli in Jeddah — produce tifo displays, drum-led chanting and atmospheres that visiting players routinely describe as the loudest in Asia. Green Falcons home matches carry the same energy with a national colour: green scarves, flags, and the ardha sword dance in the celebrations.

For visiting fans, the practical upshot is warmth with volume. Saudi hospitality to guests is a point of national pride, and a World Cup crowd here will be a genuine mixture: a huge domestic base, the Gulf's travelling fans an hour away, and the global tournament crowd arriving into a country experiencing its first World Cup. Expect to be photographed with, fed by and argued with about football by people who waited their whole lives for this. Reciprocate the curiosity and you will have the best tournament of your life.

Food, coffee and the late-night city

The fan fuel of Saudi Arabia is not beer; it is coffee, and the culture around it is centuries deep. Arabic coffee (qahwa) arrives in small cups with dates, refilled until you shake the cup to say enough; speciality coffee bars in Riyadh and Jeddah rival anywhere in the world; and the evening meal — kabsa, mandi, grilled meats, fresh bread — is the social centre of the night. Tea, juices and the famous mint lemonades fill the gaps alcohol leaves, and they fill them well.

Restaurants and cafes in the host cities run late — midnight is a normal closing thought, 2 am unremarkable — and the rhythm of a match night writes itself: dinner after the game, coffee after dinner, the Corniche or the old town after that. Fans from Qatar 2022 will recognise the pattern; fans from everywhere else will discover that a dry tournament can still be a delicious one.

Staying on the right side of the rules: a short checklist

• Alcohol and drugs: prohibited. Drug offences carry the severest penalties in Saudi law. Check prescription medicines against Saudi rules before flying and carry the prescription.
• Dress modestly in public (shoulders and knees covered); follow mosque rules precisely, including head coverings for women inside mosques.
• Ask before photographing people; never photograph military, police or government installations.
• Public affection, swearing at officials and insulting gestures can be offences — argue about the referee the way you would in a library, not a pub.
• Respect prayer rhythms and Ramadan rules if the tournament overlaps the holy month; public eating and drinking in daylight is restricted during Ramadan.
• Keep ID and your visa paperwork accessible; use licensed taxis and official channels; save 911 (Riyadh, Makkah and Eastern regions) or 999/997 elsewhere.

None of this is difficult, and almost all of it is what polite guests do anywhere. The fans who thrive in Saudi Arabia are the ones who arrive curious about how the country works rather than determined to test it — and who discover, usually within a day, that the welcome is the real story.

Photography, drones and social media: the modern fan's rules

The camera rules deserve their own lines because they differ from home. Photograph the football, the cities, the food — freely. Photograph people only with permission; photograph women never without it; and keep lenses away from police, military, airports' security areas and government buildings. Drones require permits that visitors effectively cannot obtain for casual use — leave the drone at home; it will be seized at customs without the paperwork, and the paperwork is not a tourist product.

Social media posting from Saudi Arabia is ordinary life — the Kingdom is one of the world's most online societies — with the standard caution that published criticism of the country, its leadership or religion can carry legal consequences residents and visitors alike. Post the match, the meals and the mosques' exteriors with respect, and the platforms will treat you as they do anywhere. The line is not hard to find; it is exactly where a thoughtful guest would draw it.

Health, insurance and the practical safety net

Saudi healthcare in the host cities is modern and deep — Riyadh and Jeddah hold some of the region's best hospitals — and emergency care is available to everyone. The eVisa's bundled insurance covers the basics of the tourist system; a World Cup trip deserves a full travel policy on top, including medical evacuation cover, because the distances between the spectacular and the hospital can be desert-sized on excursions. Pharmacies are plentiful and well stocked; bring prescriptions for anything specific, in original packaging, checked against the controlled-medicines rules described earlier.

General safety runs in visitors' favour: the host cities are low-crime by global big-city standards, and the ordinary precautions — licensed transport, belongings watched in crowds, documents copied to the cloud — are the whole of the art. The fans most likely to need help in 2034 are the ones who underestimate the sun, the distances and the late nights; this guide exists, in large part, to make sure that is not you.

The greeting economy: small customs, large returns

A closing custom worth more than any rule on this page: greet people. 'As-salamu alaykum' — peace be upon you — answered with 'wa alaykum as-salam', opens doors across the Kingdom with an ease that surprises visitors from reserve-cultured countries. Accept the coffee, compliment the food, ask about the football, and accept that conversations with strangers are not interruptions here but the medium of life itself. The fans who collect the best 2034 stories will not be the ones who mastered the regulations; they will be the ones who mastered the greetings — and discovered that the Kingdom's famous hospitality is not a slogan but a habit, practised daily, on guests who simply show up willing to receive it.

The spirit of the thing

Guides end with rules; this one ends with the reason the rules are easy. Saudi Arabia asked the world to come — bid for it, built for it, argued for it in the face of the world's scepticism — and a country that has asked for guests intends to honour them. The fan who arrives with respect for how the Kingdom lives, and curiosity about everything else, will find the tournament's famous moments happening as often in the cafes and corniches as in the stadiums. That is the fan guide's whole secret, and it was never really a rule at all.

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