The Qatari World Cup, a symbol of football in turmoil

Geographic expansion of football, triumph of sports diplomacy, search for new income. One year before its start, the Qatar World Cup already meets the main challenges of the beautiful sport that is going through its time of greatest turmoil.

First Arab country to host the Queen’s competition FIFA, the small gas kingdom is an exponent of the movement launched in the nineties by the leaders of world football, in search of new territories far from their European and South American bases.

“Before, the World Cups consolidated local football cultures. Now try to raise them ”, sums up Grégory Quin, Sports historian at the University of Lausanne.

Contrary to the World Cup editions of Germany (2006) or Brazil (2014), both returns to the origins, the Qatari event is part of the dynamics of the World Cup in the United States (1994), in South Korea and Japan (2002) , and later in South Africa (2010), observes this researcher.

But there is more: since its designation at the end of 2010 as host country, in conditions that are still the subject of judicial investigations in Switzerland, France and the United States, Qatar has extended its influence on the ‘planet of sport’ in unprecedented proportions and with some media never deployed before.

Multidimensional influence

The emirate, which had the infrastructures required for the tournament built by force, was not content to host other competitions such as the last two editions of the FIFA Club World Cup and the 2019 World Athletics World Cup, all with the ambition to one day host the Summer Olympics.

By acquiring Paris SG in 2011 through its sovereign wealth fund QSI, the country prolonged its rivalry in European stadiums with the United Arab Emirates, owners of Manchester City, a strategy that inspired the recent takeover of English Newcastle by a Saudi background.

But unlike its powerful neighbors, Qatar has a sports broadcasting giant with the beIn group, led by PSG president and ‘minister without portfolio’ Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, who is strongly committed to World Cup television rights 2026 and 2030 in the Middle East despite the absence of competition.

Finally, the country has moved its chips in the instances of football: a member of the UEFA executive committee, reinforced by his loyalty during the Super League crisis, Al-Khelaïfi also took over this year the presidency of the European Association of clubs.

And more anecdotally, Qatar partially financed the renovation in Paris of the Edificio de la Marina, which is to house one of its art collections and … the future Parisian branch of FIFA.

‘Full time’

Beyond the particularities surrounding the host country, the 2022 World Cup also marks FIFA’s desire to develop its star competition, on which the bulk of its income has been based since 1930 in men’s football, and since 1991 in women’s.

The Qatari edition will be the last with 32 teams before a move to 48 teams in the 2026 World Cup organized by the United States, Canada and Mexico, a sign of “weakening the qualifiers to strengthen the final phase,” says Grégory Quin.

In his opinion, although “proximity” with the public “generates emotions” and some qualifying matches are part of the history of some teams, they have chosen to tip the balance towards the World Cup finals rather than qualifying.

And FIFA does not intend to stay there, since it has been pressing for months to double the frequency of the competition, which will take place every two years from 2026, alternating with continental tournaments such as the Eurocup and the America’s Cup.

Fought by a large part of European football and the axis of a FIFA summit on December 20, this idea also alarms the International Olympic Committee, concerned about the conflict with its own summer Olympic Games and with important events in tennis, cycling, gymnastics, swimming or Formula 1.

For Grégory Quin, he wants to make “football monoculture”, the most profitable sport in the world, “full time and everywhere”. Although this can produce saturation and put the development of other sports disciplines at risk.