Football and Qatari Economics.

The 2022 FIFA Football World Cup, currently being played at Doha, Qatar, is one of the most unique tournaments in history, held every four years.

With the finals on in a few days, let’s look back at what new elements, the 2022 FIFA Qatar World Cup has demonstrated to the world, and that may be different from previous FIFA World Cups.

32 teams competed in this event, as Qatar was given the opportunity to host this electrifying event for the first time.

First – It is in a new land.

FIFA has held the World Cup in various countries over the years, and this year was no exception. Qatar is one of the world’s fastest growing footballing nations and is expected to continue to produce a steady stream of young, enthusiastic players in the coming years.

Hundreds of the world’s best soccer players and over a million fans had gathered in this thumb-shaped peninsula in the Persian Gulf for the tournament that changed the game.

Naturally, all eyes were upon Qatar.

It was imposed despite the long-feared cultural enforcements, that was formerly thought inconceivable at a FIFA World Cup.

The Cultural Bans.

• Fans from all around the world were told not to dress in anything too revealing. Additionally, everyone had to keep their knees and shoulders covered.
• Fans were not permitted to remove items of clothing or otherwise remain in a state of undress’ during the game. Additionally, they should also not reveal any “intimate parts.”
• All these had been stated in an advisory that were handed out to the ticket holders.
• Fans were disappointed to learn that they couldn’t buy BEER at any of the football games about 48 hours before the World Cup started.
• Food was not permitted inside the stadium for hygienic and maintenance reasons. Only infant food and food required for medical reasons were permitted, following a thorough inspection.
• Balloons and inflatable balls were prohibited at this FIFA World Cup.

DESPITE all the above cultural conflicts, surprisingly, very few raised any complaint – because once the game began, everything was FORGOTTEN.

New Ball Technology.

The FIFA World Cup 2022 featured a brand-new artificial intelligence (AI) technology called ‘SEMI-AUTOMATED OFFSIDE TECHNOLOGY,’ which was deployed for the first time in a FIFA World Cup.

The ball’s internal “inertial measuring unit sensor” was used by this new AI technology to determine the ball’s position, along with the player’s position to track and identify any potential offside opportunity.

I’m not sure what they might adopt for the upcoming 2026 FIFA World Cup – perhaps, a DRS (Decision Review System)?

Having said that, I like the Off-Side Chip thingy, and wished that it would also emit a beep whenever it came in contact with a player’s hands.

The Gulf Supremacy.

Let’s put football aside for a moment and think about Qatar’s perspective on the 2022 FIFA World Cup and how it would enhance its commercial dominance in the Gulf.

The UAE and Qatar have long battled it out for commercial supremacy in the Gulf’s trade.

For much of the 20th century, Qatar was a barren Persian Gulf backwater better known for pearl diving, rather than power politics. Its inhabitants were underprivileged and far below their Saudi neighbors.

Then Qatar struck gas.

The discovery of the world’s largest gas field in 1971 resulted in Qatar’s initial metamorphosis into one of the richest nations in the world, emboldening its leaders the confidence to view their country not just as an adjunct of its wealthier neighbours, but as a legitimate geopolitical opponent.

Hence, the bid to host the World Cup was simply another step: an opportunity to announce themselves, to tell their story, on a truly global stage.

Thus, winning the right to host the World Cup was a huge propaganda coup.

The Al Thani’s has plenty of dollars to spend, and the West wants their money and liquid natural gas, so why shouldn’t the Kingdom get their rewards?

In short, it was just business.

International sporting events like the World Cup and the Olympics are managed by power-hungry Western bureaucrats, who are only too happy to oblige.  These functionaries don’t care about politics as long as the games are played on time.

It was one thing having the funds and ambition to host the tournament but winning the right to do so was another matter entirely.

And that was Qatar’s biggest issue in 2010.

To the Al Thani’s, everything and everyone in the West were for sale, a bit like the current Indian political scenario.

Western greed and hypocrisy are inextricably linked.

Despite being photographed at Gay Pride events and supporting liberal causes at home, many celebrities, models, and sports figures are happy to accept Qatari money to promote the World Cup.

If the 47-year-old Becksy could get 277M for the Qatari World Cup Ambassadorial Role, what is wrong in CR7 getting something close to the above figure for a supposedly transfer to a Saudi Club… (RUMOUR ONLY – NOT CONFIRMED)

Money for nothing and sheikhs for free???

For years, Qatar has dismissed criticisms of its World Cup bid as jealousy or, worse, Western racism.

The Bid That Broke FIFA.

As the story goes, Michel Platini was expecting a private lunch with the president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, when he arrived for lunch on a cold November day in 2010.

Instead, as Platini, the renowned French player who in retirement had grown to become one of the most influential men in soccer, came into a beautiful salon inside the president’s official mansion, he noticed that the man he had come to see, Nicolas Sarkozy, was absent.

Instead, Platini was led to a small group of people conversing across the room, and to a conversation that would change the trajectory of his career, tarnish his reputation, and forever alter the sport to which he had dedicated himself to.

Platini smiled as he was formally introduced to the lunch’s special guests – Sheikh Hamad bin Jasim al-Thani, Qatar’s prime minister, and his son, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, who would succeed his father as the country’s absolute ruler within a few years.

The Qataris had travelled to Paris to talk about a scheme that seemed almost absurd — they wanted to host the 2022 World Cup in their tiny, obscenely prosperous Gulf Nation.

Platini, a vice president of FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, had previously expressed reservations, and had even opposed such a notion.

A year earlier, he had told friends that this proposal has never particularly appealed to him. He believed at that allowing Qatar, a country with no meaningful soccer heritage and lacking basic infrastructure facilities like stadiums to host the world’s biggest sporting event could be disastrous for FIFA.

Only two months before, he had even confided to a rival US bid that he wanted the 2022 tournament to be held “anywhere but Qatar.”

Platini’s reservations, however, vanished at some point that afternoon.

More than ten years later, it is still resolutely obscure and fiercely contested what exactly happened to cause him to alter his mind during lunch with a tardy Sarkozy and the two Qataris.

Platini has provided at least two different versions of what transpired, in all of which he insisted that his vote was entirely his own decision and unaffected by any extraneous forces.

Additionally, he was detained in 2019 but was not charged by French investigators who were purportedly checking into the meeting.

In 2010, it was announced that Qatar would host the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

A week after the lunch, in a huge conference room in Zurich, Qatar was officially announced as the host nation for the 2022 World Cup, but by then the deal had already been completed.

Since then, the world’s most popular sport has been dealing with the fallout from that decision.

The decision was mired in controversy and charges of corruption.

The US Department of Justice also suspected that FIFA members had been bribed to vote for Qatar, despite the country’s repeated denials.

FIFA Corruption and the way FIFA conducts business.

Since then, American investigators and FIFA itself have claimed that several FIFA board members took bribes to tilt the vote in Qatar’s favor. (Platini was not among them).

Numerous arrests were made as a result of an extensive corruption probe of FIFA’s operations. These incidents, along with others, contributed to the fall of FIFA’s entire executive committee and nearly brought the organization down.

However, the decision to award the 2022 FIFA World Cup had irreversibly altered the economics of top-flight soccer.

Qatari-nomics.

Within a year of the lunch at the Elysée Palace, Qatari interests had bought the French team Paris St.-Germain, and a Qatari-owned sports network began started investing heavily in European soccer by acquiring broadcasting rights. That infusion of cash had an impact on not only what top players earned and where they played, but it also threatened to drive an irreversible schism between a handful of the sport’s wealthiest teams and the rest of the league.

Construction before and beyond 2022 World Cup.

This sparked a construction frenzy in a small Gulf country, resulting in a stunning nation-building project that included superhighways, hotels, and eight showcase stadiums (one designed like a Bedouin tent, another built out of 974 recycled shipping containers).

Can any country think of dismantling their gigantic stadiums after its use. Qatar is the one all the eight stadiums will see massive transformations.

The 40,000-seater stadium 974 will be dismantled after the world cup and will be provided to the needy countries. Similarly, the 80,000-seater Lusail Stadium will be transformed into a community space. With cafes, schools and health clinics inside it.

Human Rights Violation Allegations.

Around 6,500 migrant laborers are said to have perished while constructing the tournament’s sparkling, purpose-built infrastructure in Qatar, which includes eight showcase stadiums, superhighways, and hotels (one designed like a Bedouin tent, another built out of 974 recycled shipping containers).

However, human rights groups claim that the rapid construction project killed these migrant workers, a figure that Qatar denies, claiming that the country had long since cleaned up its labor practices.

Regardless of their labor policies, Qatar argued that the middlemen and people who recruit workers and labor from developing and under developing countries are the ones that tarnish the country’s reputation regarding labor laws. This incidentally is a problem shared by most Gulf countries.

The 2022 Qatar World Cup is said to be the most expensive FIFA World Cup ever.

Hey, I like the Qataris – they have a better sense of humor than most Arabs – but my Tunisian, Syrian, and Sudanese girlfriends, not to mention the two Misri Mohandis’s, will definitely not approve of that.

They are genuinely a great group of people. But will they pay me a mill or two for stating that?

La Nakat, Yaa Sadiqi!

Cost Comparisons with the last two FIFA World Cups.

The 2022 FIFA Cup gave Qatari national pride the much-needed boost.

They spent almost $6.5B on the fashionable new stadiums that reflect Arabic tradition and culture.

Coincidentally, the 2014 Brazil FIFA World Cup cost about $11.5B (which was 8 years ago, and $5B more). In addition, the price tag for the 2018 Russia FIFA World Cup was around $14B (which was four years ago and yet $8B more)

Besides, if you consider the enormous TV rights and sponsorships that come with any FIFA Cup – My guess for the 2022 Qatar one would be at least $3.5B, though I’d call that a conservative estimate.

Subtract the total prize money of $0.5B, and you get a ballpark INCOME figure of $3B, which could perhaps be even more.

The Arab way of doing business.

Qatar claims that over the last 12 years, the total cost of hosting the 2022 Qatar World Cup has reportedly cost the country around $220B.

Although I don’t mean to offend any of my Arab friends, one of the main reasons I like them is that I have yet to meet an Arab who would not try to gain at least twice the profit before investing any fuloos…. something very common with the Gujjus of Sindhis of India.

While I have no doubt that the entire shindig must have cost a package, I have my doubts (PERSONAL OPINION ONLY) that it cost such an astronomical figure. (As this figure is nearly three to four times their annual budget).

Now, try taking take time off and check these facts and figures on Google.

As I have no right to publish any of my findings as I do not have any rights to publishing them, I refrain from commenting further.

All I know from Reuters, is that Qatar has approved a Budget of $56B for the year 2022, a year which is now drawing to its close.

However, if you combine FIFA Costs along with their nation building and infrastructure development budget over a 12-year period – the figure $220B would not seem that astronomical, as Qatar was fast developing into a colossal commercial behemoth.

That being said, I wouldn’t be surprised if the said costs were to be audited – a lot many people may have made a killing off this 2022 Bedouin Karnafal… (PERSONAL OPINION ONLY)

Brief look at Qatari Investments (QIA), after acquiring World Cup Rights.

Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) is owned by Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the Emir of Qatar. Following the takeover, PSG became the richest club in France and one of the wealthiest in the world.

A Qatari-owned sports network had then purchased the broadcasting rights.

Its sovereign wealth fund is the 14th largest in the world, according to the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute.

Europe has long been a top destination for Qatari cash, with the country deploying Bs in trophy investments such as German carmakers, Italian fashion designers and football clubs.

After a raft of high-profile deals that gave the fund, known as the QIA, and other Qatari investors, holdings in Hollywood, New York office space, London residential property, luxury Italian fashion, not to mention the soccer team, PSG.

Qatar had also stepped in to invest Bs in Barclays Plc and Credit Suisse Group AG during the 2008 financial crisis.

Qatar’s former prime minister and royal family member Sheikh Hamad bin Jasim bin Jabr Al Thani injected €1.75B ($1.85 B) into Deutsche Bank AG in 2014 as the German lender sold shares to shore up capital.

The QIA is the biggest shareholder in German carmaker Volkswagen AG and played a pivotal role in Glencore’s $29B takeover of Xstrata Plc in 2012 after demanding the Swiss commodities trader boost its offer for Xstrata, in which it had built a stake of more than 10%.

This is just a few of CIA’s (pun intended) operations.

There are many more, which just make the FIFA expense seem rather small.

But when you write this off as Expenses towards 2022 FIFA World Cup Infrastructure Development Costs and Expenses, QIA Investments and other Investments, then you tend to get a different picture.

It doesn’t take financial wizardry to invest properly, some of which can be written off as FIFA World Cup Expenses. Just thinking aloud (PERSONAL OPINION ONLY).

To think that a country with a population smaller than Houston has amassed $335B in assets around the world changes your entire perspective on Qatar.

Respect Shaqiq!

Now this is called Public Relations Habibi.

Qatar 2022 World Cup Organizers provided FREE travel and tickets to fans of participating teams, including dozens of Americans. But only if they promised not to criticize Qatar, and the offer comes with a catch. The handpicked fans who accept this trip, financed by Qatar had to abide by contracts that required them to sing what they’re told to sing, to watch what they say and, most controversially, to report social media posts made by other fans critical of Qatar. Despite these rules, hundreds of supporters supposedly had signed up.

The Qatari Perspective.

Most key players from PSG (Paris Saint-Germain), which incidentally belong to Qatari interests, have made it to the Quarters or Semis.  All that remains to be seen is which PSG player would shine the next few days.

Incidentally, Paris Saint-Germain is owned by Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the Emir of Qatar. Besides, what does a few millions matter – as they now hold the World’s Centre Stage.

What better advertising can you ask for a country. The television and social media is flooded with images of Qatar, and I hope to visit there someday, and is already on my bucket list. Besides, who will ever forget Morocco’s or Saudi Arabia’s performance. It would be difficult to erase the Richarlisson kick, or the Messi – Julian Alvarez combo, or the Kylian Mbappe free kick or the Moroccan goalkeeper Yassine Bounou’s performance who single-handedly knocked out the 2010 FIFA World Cup Winners, Spain from Qatar.

There are many more and it will take some time they are erased from our memories.

Now, does it really matter whether Qatar was eliminated in the first round.

I am confident that the Al Thani’s are the ones who are having the last laugh.

Throughout the competition, they have maintained such a low profile.

If it had been in the United States, Europe, or Asia, the Country’s Premiers would have been present in every other match. We’d have Trumps and Modi’s presenting a signed selfie certificate.

Perhaps the combined 2026 FIFA World Cup (Canadian, US, and Mexican) will speak for itself and we might also get to see a lot more skin and beer..

To put it simply, despite all the scandals, complaints and glory, I personally am glad that the 2022 FIFA World Cup was held in Qatar.

Qatar, you have truly arrived.

Salud!