The Qatar World Cup kicked off amid anticipation and controversy

Qatar Gulf Stadium, Qatar 2022 World Cup opening ceremony, November 20. Liu Zhankun/Photo

On the evening of November 20, Beijing time, the opening ceremony and opening match of the 2022 Qatar World Cup were held at the Bay Stadium, 46 kilometers from the center of Doha. The opening ceremony performance, which emphasized cultural inclusion, was impressive, but then Qatar lost 2-0 to Ecuador, embarrassingly becoming the first host team in World Cup history to lose the opener. The contrast between the opening ceremony and the opening match highlights the two sides of this World Cup, which is both exciting and controversial.

Inspired by the Bedouin tents used by the ancient Gulf nomads, the imposing Bay Stadium is a brand new stadium with a capacity of 60,000 people and features an opening roof and air-conditioning system to ensure the right temperature. The Gulf Stadium is one of the eight stadiums of the Qatar World Cup, and as the opening match begins, these eight stadiums will also meet audiences from all over the world, giving people a glimpse of these luxurious stadiums.

According to publicly disclosed information, Qatar has spent more than $220 billion to host the World Cup. The 2014 World Cup in Brazil and the 2018 World Cup in Russia both cost more than $10 billion, which is already a record-breaking high consumption in the history of the World Cup, but the "burning ability" of the Qatar World Cup makes the World Cup in Brazil and Russia unmatched.

In addition to the construction and renovation of the eight stadiums, Qatar has also spent a lot of money on the construction of airports, subways and other infrastructure to host the World Cup, and even built a new city of Lusel.

Qatar will host the most expensive World Cup in history, and naturally it has its own demands. Li Hai, dean of the School of Economics and Management of Shanghai University of Sport, said, "It is already a consensus that holding large-scale sports events can bring returns to a country and region. This return is mainly reflected in two aspects, one is economic demand, that is, to bring revenue through holding events; The second is social demand, that is, to improve a country's soft power. I think the core appeal of Qatar to host the World Cup is the second aspect, to improve the country's soft power. ”

As we all know, Qatar has abundant oil and gas resources, relying on the energy economy, Qatar's per capita GDP in 2020 exceeded 60,000 US dollars, ranking first in the world. But Qatar's economy is also highly dependent on energy, a typical single economic model. In addition, Qatar's surroundings, as an Islamic country and geographical location in the Middle East, have always been turbulent and complex. Li Hai believes that therefore, although Qatar's energy economy is very developed and per capita income is also high, the characteristics of a single economic model are obvious, and for the international community, Qatar is also easy to give a relatively conservative impression. And this impression is exactly what Qatar wants to break.

As the world's No. 1 sport, the Football World Cup is the world's top event. Qatar, as the host of the Football World Cup, undoubtedly has an opportunity to give the world a deeper understanding of itself. Li Hai said that in fact, just like we hosted the Beijing Winter Olympics, increasing the awareness of the outside world through hosting the Games is a means to improve the country's soft power.

Li Hai said that the most direct benefit of a country's soft power is that it will boost tourism and increase efforts to attract foreign investment. All of this has helped Qatar change its economic monolith.

In fact, in addition to Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries have the desire to enhance their national soft power through sports. It can be seen that some important international competitions have settled in Middle Eastern countries with similar backgrounds - in addition to hosting this World Cup, Qatar hosted the Asian Games as early as 2006, the Asian Cup in 2011, and will host the Asian Games again in 2030; Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (Abu Dhabi) are both hosts of the F1 race; Saudi Arabia will host the Asian Games in 2034 and the Asian Winter Games in 2029, and plans to invest $500 billion to build a new city featuring winter sports in the desert.

In addition, Middle Eastern countries are also investing heavily in European professional sports, Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Manchester City and other famous European football clubs, can see investors from Middle Eastern countries.

However, Qatar and these Middle Eastern countries have also been controversial about their demands for sports to enhance their soft power.

Earlier this month, just before the opening of the World Cup in Qatar, former FIFA president Blatter, who resigned years ago because of negative news, said, "It was a 'mistake' for FIFA to hand over the World Cup to Qatar. "Football and the World Cup are too big," he said, while the country of Qatar is "too small."

Blatter's remarks only added a new controversy to the World Cup in Qatar.

Since Qatar won the right to host the World Cup in 2010, the controversy over the World Cup has never stopped. Dr. Liu Lingling, a columnist for the British "Sports Business" and an expert in international large-scale events and sports industry, told the China Youth Daily that the Qatar World Cup can be said to be the most controversial World Cup ever.

The first is that the venue is so special, Qatar is not only a small country in geographical concepts, but also a small country on the map of world football. Qatar had never reached the World Cup finals before qualifying for the World Cup finals as the host. Qatar's defeat to Ecuador in this World Cup opener was not surprising, but it broke the record for World Cup hosts to never lose in the opener.

Secondly, to avoid the potentially 50-degree Celsius heat in Qatar's summer, the World Cup is the first time in history that it will be held in the northern hemisphere winter, which is also a challenge for European football leagues and players that are taking place at the same time.

On November 20, on the opening day of the World Cup, the defending champion France broke the news that 2022 Ballon d'Or winner Benzema withdrew from the French team due to injury, missing the World Cup. Benzema's exit has added another big player to the list of injured retirees for this World Cup, and although it is difficult to say whether this is necessarily related to the fact that this World Cup is held in winter, the correlation certainly exists.

In order to squeeze one month out of the league's original schedule to make way for this World Cup, European leagues have had to encrypt their schedules, which undoubtedly greatly increases the risk of injury to players. In addition, due to the close connection between the league and the World Cup, it is difficult for players to recover before the opening of the World Cup once injured, and some players can only deliberately reserve in the game in order to avoid being injured in the league, which in turn affects the excitement of the league. Liu Lingling said that the contradiction between the football league and the World Cup in European countries has caused a lot of controversy.

As for whether Qatar can achieve its expectations by hosting the World Cup, Liu Lingling also holds a wait-and-see attitude. She believes that Qatar can spend a lot of money to build the World Cup stadium, but it is difficult to build a football league and develop the football industry, and Qatar may not be attractive enough for top sports management and operation talents in Europe and the United States, which is an important driver for the sustainable development of the sports industry.

However, Liu Lingling still has a lot to look forward to the Qatar World Cup, such as how these luxurious and high-end stadiums will provide players and spectators with a better experience, and how they will be combined with smart venues, etc., which will become a clear imprint of this World Cup.

China Youth Daily / China Youth Network reporter Cixin Source: China Youth Daily

Source: China Youth Daily