Playing games in the Gulf: how GCC Nations use Sport to build power and position

Qatar has developed a particularly offensive sport diplomacy over the last ten years, and especially since Doha won its bid to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

IRIS: How would you sum up this decade?

SIMON CHADWICK: I would sum it up, I think, as having Qatar gone from anonymity to notoriety, and now, finally, something approaching legitimacy. Certainly, if you go back to 2009, I suspect that most people in the world had not heard of Qatar. They certainly did not know where it was, and I am guessing that a lot of people could not actually point to it on a map. I am sure that there are many people around the world who are still in that position. But obviously, having won the right to stage the 2022 World Cup it raised awareness of the country and its aspirations. Whether this was intended or not, it began to shine a spotlight on whom the country is, what it does, what its aspirations and relationships are with the rest of the world…