Pete Brown: FIFA's own goal hands World Cup victory to Bavaria

At Holland's group game against Denmark, 36 attractive girls appeared in a block, all wearing bright orange mini-dresses. Orange is the Dutch national colour, and thousands of other Dutch fans were wearing it.

But orange is also the branding colour of Dutch beer brand Bavaria. As this group of scantily clad girls was rather eye-catching, FIFA decided that their presence was a marketing stunt by Bavaria.

The girls were surrounded by stewards, ejected from the ground, and held in what FIFA euphemistically calls a 'containment facility' for several hours.

Two girls thought to be the organisers were arrested, bailed, and had their passports seized. This created international condemnation, and charges against the two - which could have resulted in jail time - were eventually dropped.

Leaving aside the deeply disturbing development whereby the line between commercial marketing disputes and individual criminal behaviour has been erased, it's a fascinating case.

Of course it was a marketing stunt. And of course FIFA's reaction is purely to protect the exclusivity that AB InBev has paid through the nose for as sole beer sponsor of the tournament.

But it was a fiendishly clever stunt that illustrates the absurdity of trying to criminalise such guerrilla marketing activity. It was only a stunt because FIFA's actions helped make it one.

There was no Bavaria branding visible on the dresses.

If FIFA had merely gritted its teeth and shaken its fists at the screen when the world's cameras trained on the girls, none of us would be any the wiser, and Bavaria beer's website would not have gone from nowhere in the UK to the fifth-most visited website that week.

The stunt would not have worked. Therefore, FIFA's own actions were as much a part of this stunt as the unbranded orange dresses were. If the stunt was illegal, FIFA is surely obliged to prosecute itself as well as the women wearing the dresses.

The absurdity doesn't stop there. FIFA's argument rested on the fact it knew that orange is Bavaria's brand colour, even though it's also the Dutch football fans' colour. If FIFA were to be consistent in its marketing rules, it should not only eject any Dutch fan wearing orange, but should also bar from World Cup stadia any England fan sporting a St George's cross, as this is a device heavily used by Bombardier beer.

Or to be more exact: if FIFA thought you were wearing a St George's cross you created yourself or bought from a souvenir stand, you'd be fine.

But if it believed the same flag or item of clothing was given to you by Bombardier — even if there were no proof of this, and no Bombardier branding visible — then it would be illegal. Not just against FIFA rules, but breaking South African criminal law.

(By the way, if you think this could never happen here, just wait. The Olympics Act of 2006 makes it an offence for any organisation to use words including "2012, games, gold, silver and bronze" in combination except official sponsors of the Olympic Games.)

The AB InBev management has remained tight-lipped over the whole thing. If I were them, I'd be furious. I'd like to think they'd be angry about FIFA's massive over-reaction to the Dutch girls, creating an international diplomatic incident on their behalf, making them look more monstrous and sinister than their own actions ever could.

But I know for sure they'll be incandescent over the fact that, by trying to protect Budweiser's association with the World Cup, FIFA has done more to displace it, and replace it with Bavaria, than anyone else could possibly do.