- Hubert Walas
Geopolitics of the Qatar World Cup.
In a few days, the World Cup kicks off. Alongside the Olympic Games, this is one of the two largest sporting events in the world. Until now, only countries with sufficient economic and demographic potential have been selected to host it, as the organization itself is very expensive, but on the other hand, it is a great ennoblement for the host country. The 2022 World Cup will be held in Qatar which, due to its size, would usually never dream of hosting the tournament. However, behind everything, as always, is geopolitics. Let’s embark on a journey of sporting, financial, environmental, ideological, and inter-state relations and see why and how Qatar got the World Cup. How key actors in the world and in the region view it. And what the impact of the first World Cup hosted by an Arab country might be.
The episode is based on the report "Qatar - Geopolitics and World Cup" prepared by a team of experts from the Institute of New Europe. If you want to learn more about the geopolitical side of the championship, I encourage you to check out the report - a link to it can be found in the description.
The Peninsula of Wealth
Qatar is a small peninsular country located in the Persian Gulf. It is the second smallest country in the Middle East, about the size of Kosovo or the US State of Connecticut. By land, Qatar borders only Saudi Arabia. And for some time, after obtaining independence from Great Britain in 1971, has been treated as Riyadh’s vassal.
However, the discovery of massive oil and natural gas deposits, and the start of its production in the early 1990s, changed Qatar's ambitions. Today, despite its small territory, Doha is one of the world's three largest natural gas producers and one of the 20 largest exporters of oil.
Such massive natural resources have brought enormous wealth to the Qataris. In terms of GDP per capita calculated in purchasing power parity, Qatar was the wealthiest country in the world in 2017 and remains in the top four today. The country's population is less than 3 million, although the number of Qataris is only approximately 10% of this number.
Nevertheless, while the Qatari people are economically happy, their status in the world and their regional position has remained very peripheral. Therefore, in order to change this state of affairs, Doha has taken a number of wide-ranging initiatives using the proceeds from the sale of hydrocarbons.
Let's start with the fact that Qatar, with much less potential than its neighbors, such as Saudi Arabia, Iran, or even the United Arab Emirates, had to be more creative in its ventures. That’s why Doha, for example, was quick to recognize the importance that mass media would play in the modern world. In 1996, the Qataris created the Arabic-language Al Jazeera TV; ten years later, an English-language version was established. Today, it is the largest news television channel in the Arab world and has become a powerful tool of influence in the region and the world. It is mentioned alongside the BBC or CNN in terms of its organization, production, and reporter network much to the disapproval of Qatar's neighbors, especially Saudi Arabia. Riyadh has sometimes referred to Al Jazeera as Doha's propaganda tube. Al Jazeera's sports offshoot is beIN sports TV, which broadcasts sporting events in countries around the world and is also not without relevance to this story.
Another vehicle for building national pride and its own position in the world has become sport. In the 21st century alone, Qatar has organized more than 20 world or continental championship events.
What's more, the Qatari authorities were determined not to merely play the role of "whipping boy" at these events, a fate that has often befallen athletes from a country with a sparse, sports-averse population and no substantial sporting tradition. However, nothing is impossible if you have sufficiently deep pockets. Thus, in the World Handball Championship that Qatar organized in 2015, only two Qatari-born players were in the 17-strong team. The rest of the players were naturalized and came from Montenegro, Croatia, France, or Spain. The cosmopolitan host team won the silver medal.
However, Doha's dreams reached even higher. The Qataris had set their sights on a goal that , in theory, is unattainable for such a small country. The Qataris dreamed of hosting one of the two biggest sporting events in the world: the FIFA World Cup. Doha officially announced its candidacy to host the football tournament in 2009.
Illogical World Cup
A brief historical glance at the past hosts shows how outlandish this wish seemed. The last four hosts, i.e., Russia, South Africa, Brazil, or Germany, are all large countries, with the latter two being multiple time world champions. The host country of such a tournament must have at least 12 large and modern stadiums. Moreover, it must have the right hotel and logistical facilities to cope with an event that is likely to attract several million fans to the country. The last tournament in Russia was visited by 3 million foreign spectators. This means that if a similar number of fans visited Qatar, the country's population could temporarily even double.
At the time of its bid, Qatar had no suitable stadiums or even training centers for the teams. And the logistics and hotel base were unprepared to accommodate even a fraction of the expected visiting fans.
However, this is not even the end of the list of reasons why Qatar's candidacy seemed illogical. The tournament's organizer, FIFA - let’s remember Qatar may host the event, but FIFA organizes it - conducts its own official ideological narrative. In theory, it is based on respect for racial minorities, including the 'No to Racism' campaigns or support for the rights of the LGBT community. But Qatar is governed by Sharia, a religious legal code in which non-heteronormativity is prohibited by law, punishable by imprisonment, and even the death penalty in the case of Muslims. Also, Alcohol is banned, while beer is an integral part of football culture, which explains FIFA's lucrative advertising contracts with beer producers.
In the eyes of FIFA stakeholders, all these obstacles did not turn out to be too big of a problem. On December 2, 2010, Qatar officially became the smallest country to organize a tournament of this rank. Interestingly, on the same day, the Russian Federation was chosen to host the championship in 2018. The armed aggression against Georgia two years prior was not a factor for the leaders of the world football organization, which would stand in the way of hosting the World Cup. The launch of a military operation by Russia against Ukraine in 2014 also did not bother FIFA. Despite the ongoing aggression and the illegal annexation of Crimea, Russia hosted the 2018 World Cup.
Now, back to the Gulf. You don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to deduce that, in awarding the championship to Qatar, it wasn't Qatar's picturesque sand dunes that convinced the commissioners to turn a blind eye to all the aforementioned contradictions, but rather another resource which Doha also has in abundance, and one that proved crucial.
Everything can be Bought
There are at least several documented corruption plots involving the Qatari government, FIFA, or persons associated with it. The sums involved run into hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars. To name just a few:
- Three weeks before the vote, Qatar's Al Jazeera offered $400m to FIFA for the tournament's broadcasting rights, with a further $100m to FIFA's account if Qatar was awarded the hosting rights. What's more, the Qatari government threw in a further $480m, bringing the total to close to $1 billion in TV rights alone.
- Additionally, with the help of Global Risk Advisors company, Qatar conducted a large-scale operation against critics within FIFA. It was intended to help identify the executive committee's most corrupt-prone members involved in selecting the World Cup host. The cost of the operation? $387 million. This is where Qatari Mohamed Bin Hamman, a member of the FIFA Executive Committee, played his part. Knowing the appropriate details, he knew who and how to convince, and he himself transferred $5 million to the accounts of individual FIFA members.
- The meeting, which took place at the Elysée Palace on November 23, 2010, i.e. nine days before the host country was chosen, was also of critical importance. Meeting in the French capital were Nicholas Sarkozy, the then President of the French Republic; Michel Platini, President of the European football federation UEFA and former French football star; and Sebastien Bazin, a representative of the big, but then chronically crisis-ridden club PSG, as well as the most interesting person of the bunch: Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, heir to the Qatari throne.
Documents prepared by an international group of investigators show that the then-French president obtained assurances from the future Emir of Qatar to invest in PSG football club and French television, including purchasing television rights by beIN sports. If anyone has spent the last few years in a cave, it should be said for the sake of formality that the Qataris invested in PSG in 2011, and the club went from being a mediocre European club to almost instantly the arguably wealthiest club in the world.
This is not the end of the story; at this point, we are moving beyond the rigidly sporting framework and into pure geopolitics. Sarkozy persuaded the UEFA president to support the Arab nation’s candidacy in order for the Qataris to make investments in France and undertake military cooperation. Five years later, in 2015, Qatar purchased 24 Rafale fighter jets for €6.3 billion built by French Dassault Aviation. In 2017, 12 more were added to the original order, and Qatar retained the option to purchase 36 more. The contract also covered missiles, helicopters, and pilot and technical training. We are therefore talking about a multi-billion dollar investment. During the meeting, Platini assured that he would vote in favor of Qatar in nine days' time.
Oddly enough, FIFA is usually strict on the tournament hosts and makes many requests, however this time actually made multiple concessions to help Doha. Among other things, it has reduced the number of required stadiums from 12 to 8 even though these are crammed into a very small space. What’s more, the date of the World Cup has been unprecedentedly shifted from summer to winter. The reason is clear: from May to September, temperatures in Qatar reach 45 degrees Celsius, or over 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
While the high temperature would have bothered the footballers, in the view of FIFA and the Qataris, it did not bother the workers employed under quasi-slave conditions to build the infrastructure required for the championships. Indeed, Qatar has a kafala system in place under which a foreign worker is under contract with his sponsor, the so-called 'kafil.' Such an employee is not allowed to leave the country without specific written permission from the sponsor. The kafil provides its employee with transport, accommodation, and food.
What was it like to work for a kafil? The standard was for workers to have their passports taken away, to work with health and safety conditions affront to human dignity, no overtime pay, and exposure to working in extreme weather conditions for several hours. And all this was not only in the construction of stadiums or sports infrastructure for the World Cup. These situations were also common on other construction sites in Qatar. As a result, it is estimated that at least 6,500 foreign workers have died or been killed in Qatar over the past decade, primarily migrants from poorer countries in Asia and Africa.
What was the salary of a person risking his life on a construction site? An investigation by Doha News found that an Indian worker at the Khalifa International Stadium was paid $467 per month with a 6-day work week. There were also reports of amounts as low as $215.
FIFA also prides itself on creating climate-friendly conditions. The world football organization even has its own Climate Strategy document. The Qataris also have declared a desire to host a zero-carbon tournament. However, the information about potential zero carbon emissions during the World Cup is one thing, but building eight concrete stadiums from scratch in the middle of the desert to play a few matches is another. The organizers estimate that the World Cup will emit 3.6 megatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, but according to experts, the total emission footprint of the World Cup could be up to eight times higher.
In the Middle East Cauldron
We also need to outline the wider context of the international situation in the region. Anyone observing the Middle East knows how 'complicated' this area is. At the center of this 'boiling pot' is Qatar. This map showing Doha's inter-state relations with its neighbors illustrates this well.
In the Middle East, the map of alliances and conflicts often does not align logically. For example, Qatar maintains good relations with Iran, unlike the UAE, Bahrain, or Saudi Arabia. On the other hand, Syria is a close ally of Iran, while the UAE and Bahrain have normalized relations with it, while Qatar is hostile to it. Qatar has similarly hostile relations with Israel, which is one of the reasons it supports the radical Palestinian group Hamas. On the other hand, Qatar has a very close relationship with Turkey, mainly due to its support for the Muslim Brotherhood and Turkey's 2017 military aid to Doha. What kind of aid are we talking about?
Deteriorating Qatar-Saudi relations led to the formation of a Saudi-led anti-Qatar coalition in 2017. It was joined by the UAE, Egypt, Bahrain, and the Maldives. The aim was the economic isolation of Qatar, which only has a land border with Saudi Arabia. IT included a campaign to discredit the Qatari World Cup. The US-based pro-Saudi group SAPRAC published a report titled 'Qatar: Hosting Sports under the Banner of Terrorism.'
Qatar did not give in. It found key allies in Ankara and Tehran, leading to a rapid reorientation of trade and the implementation of new policies. The final blockade of the state by its neighbors proved ineffective. The boycott, with the support of US diplomacy and Kuwait, officially ended in 2021.
Although Qatar does not have the military, demographic and geographical potential to claim the role of regional power, it often tries to play one. The very fact of hosting the World Cup raises the prestige of the small state.
However, this prestige can quickly be turned to infamy when, during a championship watched by billions of people, events threatening the health of fans or, to put it bluntly, acts of terrorism occur. In the Middle East, which is home to dozens of major terrorist organizations and several hundred affiliated groups, such a threat is very real.
One of the 'most prolific' ones is Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra Front. Then there is the still globally active al-Qaida or Hezbollah which fights mainly against Israel. Some countries, such as, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, recognize the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization, which is, in turn, subsidized by Qatar.
The security situation is exacerbated by the very likely logistical problems of hosting hundreds of thousands of fans and the inexperience of the Qatari authorities in organizing such events. This is where NATO comes into play.
Qatar became a 'major non-NATO ally' in early 2022. As part of the close cooperation on the occasion of the championship, NATO provides support, including training on chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear threats. The first training sessions have already been conducted in May 2022. In addition, the Americans will help identify airline passengers involved in international criminal, terrorist, and human trafficking activities. The British will send their air force and navy, France will provide early warning and reconnaissance systems, while the Turks will deploy more than 3,000 security personnel. This should come as no surprise as the 13 teams that have qualified for the World Cup are NATO members, so many citizens of the member states are sure to go to the championships.
Meeting of Cultures and Nation-building
There is a lot to be said about the Qatar World Cup: corruption, feigned environmentalism, or human rights abuses, but one thing everyone can agree on – it took a lot of perseverance for the Qataris to get through all those hurdles.
Certain methods aside, Qatar did make it possible for the World Cup to be held in a Middle Eastern and Islamic country for the first time. Although the conditions for awarding the tournament are, to put it mildly, inappropriate, it should be emphasized that sport could be a factor that will bring together the often conflicting cultures of the West and the Middle East.
Moving on, although FIFA made concessions to Qatar in many places, Doha had to yield in others. For example, Qatar will allow alcohol under certain conditions and will allow rainbow flags to be displayed in stadiums. On the other hand, it is not known how the authorities will react when the promotion of non-heteronormative behavior occurs outside the stadiums and outside of FIFA's jurisdiction. From the statements of high-ranking Qatar officials, it can be concluded that fans can count on a reduced tariff, and during the month of the World Cup, Qatar will be a much more liberal country than it is regularly.
But what exactly does Qatar need the World Cup for? After thousands of negative publications against FIFA and the government in Doha, the hypothesis of building a country’s positive image can, essentially, be put into the realm of fairy tales, so after all that… what's the point? There are essentially three answers.
First, the World Cup is to help build Qatar's future, accompanied by the Qatar National Vision 2030 plan. Although it is hard to say that the World Cup will be the most effective way of developing the country, the pressure that Qataris imposed on themselves is undoubtedly a big accelerator. Suffice it to say that since 2008, this small country has spent the equivalent of $225 billion on domestic investments.
Secondly, the championship somehow legitimizes the still-young Qatar state. Qatar needs this legitimacy as a little boy living in a troubled neighborhood. As mentioned earlier, the World Cup raises Doha's prestige. Especially in relation to its more powerful neighbors.
Oddly enough, Saudi Arabia may have stakes in Qatar's eventual success. Until recently openly hostile to Doha, the Saudis have realized that if the Qataris manage the major event well, the chances of the next major sporting spectacular coming to Saudi Arabia increase significantly. Following the normalization of Qatar-Saudi Arabia relations in 2021, the first initiatives at the interface between sport and business have already emerged. There is increasing talk of a joint bid by the two countries to host the Olympic Games in 2036 or 2040, whereas the Saudi Kingdom is already bidding - together with Greece and Egypt - to host the 2030 World Cup. Therefore, the World Cup also has a dimension of softening regional relations as everyone is playing toward one goal. This is also an additional reason why no country from the Middle East will win nothing from the potential displays of terrorism during the tournament. Moreover, the national teams of Saudi Arabia and Iran will participate in the championship. Adding to the overall increase in Doha's prestige is the situation resulting from the war in Ukraine. Its position as a key exporter of LNG, especially to the many European countries looking for a substitute for Russian gas, further increases Qatar's importance.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, as Professor Simon Chadwick points out, the World Cup is primarily intended to help Qatar build a national identity. Qatar is defined by its wealth, but beyond that, it has not experienced many moments that could become an exponent for future generations, such as an iconic and unifying event. An event that focuses the world's attention on the people and culture of Qatar.
The World Cup in Qatar will begin in a few days' time. The manner in which Qatar received and then prepared the Cup had little to do with the slogans that FIFA is displaying on its banners. Racism, human rights violations, corruption, and environmental pollution - all these accusations are well-founded and can be leveled at Qatar and even FIFA itself. Nevertheless, the proverbial milk has already been spilled, thus although the event itself was born in disgraceful conditions, it has the potential for positive effects as well. Namely, the stabilization of the region's relations, particularly between Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Also, a meeting between Eastern and Western cultures, the pressure for greater respect for basic human rights in the region, and the state-building factor in Qatar. All of these can be quite significant and just as the world is never black and white, the World Cup in Qatar may be aptly viewed with a sense of the bittersweet.
Source:
https://ine.org.pl/en/qatar-geopolitics-and-the-world-cup-report/
