Before the World Cup was assigned to Germanyⁱ, Anheuser Busch bought the rights to supply the official beer. This means the American Budweiser being the only beer allowed to be sold in stadiums.

Firstly, the American Budweiser cannot use their name in Germanyⁱ as the original Czechⁱ Budweiser has the rights to the name there. In most other countries that have given the Czech beer the rights to their name, the American one is labelled Bud. Only Bud is too close to the German lager called Bitburger, which is affectionately known as Bit. So the bland rice based American brew is the official beer of the World Cup but can't sell it under any of the names it is recognised as around the world.

The beer now goes under the name of Anheuser Busch Bud. Is that it? No! With the prospect of Germans causing civil upheaval at not being able to drink decent lager at a footie match and A-B Bud being forever tainted as the beer that was boycotted, stadiums are allowed to sell Bitburger also. Read more about it at:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/06/27/world/main1754277.shtml