Paris 2024 to be dry Olympic Games with no alcohol to be sold to 10 million attending sports fans

The 2024 Summer Olympics will be a dry event in Paris with organisers opting not to sale alcohol inside stadiums.

Only VIP guests will be able to enjoy booze at the Paris Olympics next summer after organisers decided not to seek an exemption to Evin's Law. The French law bans the sale of alcohol in stadiumg to the general public.

A limited number of exemptions can be granted each year but the scale of the 2024 Olympics means that this won't be the case for the 10 million sports fans attending the historic event.

A spokesperson told Reuters that the strict French law would be followed at the Olympics despite fans attending the Rugby World Cup in the country later this year being granted an exception to be able to enjoy alcoholic drinks at the event.

The spokesperson said: "Paris 2024 will be organising more than 700 competition sessions over 15 days of competition.

"It is the strict application of French law that allows catering services that include the provision of alcohol to operate in hospitality areas as they are governed by a separate law on catering."

Football supporters who attended the Champions League final at the Stade de France in 2022 were also allowed to consume alcohol in the stadium, although purchasing booze in public spaces around the stadium was prohibibted.

Beer and wine was readily available at the London 2012 Olympics and Rio 2016 Olympics but alcohol sales were prohibited at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics - although that event famously took place without spectators due to the pandemic.

The Evin's Law dates back more than 30 years to 1991 and it will also apply to the Paralympic Games that follow the Olympic Games in France next summer.

French sports fans had campaigned for an exemption for the Games next summer, citing the hypocrisy of limited sales to VIP areas. In 2019 France's then Health Minister Agnès Buzyn suggested that alcohol should also be banned from VIP hospitality if not allowed in general admission.