Qatar, rich but not capricious
In the opening match of the Qatar World Cup, Qatar failed miserably, and the Qatari prince was anxious
If it weren't for the World Cup, many Chinese might not have heard of the country like Qatar.
Qatar can be summarized in four words, that is, "small countries are rich", but this rich country in the Middle East, rich but not capricious, compared to other Middle Eastern oil tycoons who want to change a luxury car a day, every money in Qatar is spent on the blade. This small country enters and exits between big countries, in addition to advancing and retreating, relying on abundant oil resources to meet the source left and right, and has played its own set.
Qatar sits on the west coast of the Persian Gulf, sandwiched between Saudi Arabia and Iran, two geo-powers in the Middle East
The 2022 World Cup has been grandly opened in Qatar, the first World Cup ever held in the Middle East. According to Qatari government data, the Qatar World Cup has become the "most expensive World Cup ever", spending a total of 229 billion US dollars (about 1.6 trillion yuan), and the final venue alone at the Kassel football stadium spent 760 million US dollars.
With a capacity of 90,000 spectators, this football stadium is a huge football stadium worthy of it.
Lusail Football Stadium, one of the largest and most advanced football stadiums in the world
Powered by the latest technology, the stadium is one of the most advanced and largest stadiums in the world, with 1 million square meters of air-conditioned space, free meals for more than 91,200 spectators, not only football, but also electricity and food.
Qatar is located on the coast of the Persian Gulf, and the climate is hot and dry, even in winter, the average temperature is more than 30 degrees, so this World Cup is the only World Cup to be held in winter. Qatar's more "trench inhumane" operation is that, in fact, the new city of Lusail in Qatar has become the world's "first fully air-conditioned" city. Yes, the streets of the entire city are air-conditioned, and in the Middle East, where the average temperature is 30 degrees, the outdoor temperature in Lucerneville is 24 degrees.
Brazilian female fans
What is the concept of $229 billion? Qatar's annual GDP is only more than 180 billion US dollars, from the 1982 World Cup in Spain to the 2018 World Cup in Russia, the total amount spent on the entire nine World Cups is only 100 billion US dollars, less than half of the Qatar World Cup.
It's really "trench inhumanity".
Korean fans arriving in Qatar
Qatar is a typical country of small widows, with a population of only about 2.7 million and only 310,000 native citizens. The 29-day World Cup event is expected to bring more than 1.2 million foreign fans and tourists, which is not a small burden for a small country like Qatar. Therefore, Qatar chose to "build a city" directly, rather than just build more hotels or resorts.
Located 15 kilometers north of Doha, Qatar's new international city, Lusail is Qatar's new international city for the World Cup, and 80% of the city's construction is undertaken by Chinese companies, costing up to $200 billion, and the world's most luxurious airport, Hamad International Airport, is located here, spending a full $16 billion.
Hamad International Airport
In addition, Qatar's old iron officials have also built more than 100 five-star hotels in Lucerle and the capital Doha, afraid that there is not enough space, and actually spent 15 billion US dollars to reclaim the sea to build an artificial island, which is the famous Pearl Island, which is specially used for vacation.
When the infrastructure maniac meets the oil tycoon, the result is the birth of a new city.
Qatar World Cup logo
During the World Cup, in order to facilitate fans to watch the game, Qatar implemented a free public transportation policy, which is expected to lose about 2 billion US dollars, but for Qatar Laotie, people are really not rare in this bit of silver.
The Qatar World Cup is the first international top tournament to be held in an Arab country, and in order to show friendship, the Qatari government even promised to give a subsidy of 1.5 million US dollars to all players and coaches who arrive in Qatar, regardless of political beliefs, regardless of ethnic origin, regardless of loss or win, as long as they come.
Lucerneustadt
The overall prize money for the Qatar World Cup is as much as 42 million US dollars, breaking the World Cup record.
Is it too much money for the team? The Qatar World Cup also invited former British star David Beckham to endorse, the endorsement fee is an unimaginable 150 million pounds (about 1.27 billion yuan), and Beckham's appearance fee when playing football is not so much.
British star David Beckham and Qatar's crown prince
For Qatar, "the problems that can be solved with money in this world are not problems".
However, there are still problems in this world that cannot be solved with money, such as the Qatari team lost 0-2 at the opening, Qatar estimated to be very puzzled, spent 229 billion yuan, and ate a zero duck egg.
The main revenue of the World Cup is the tourist-driven economy, and the 2018 World Cup in Russia invested $13.2 billion and earned $30 billion. The Qatar World Cup, due to a large amount of free supplies, is expected to generate only $20 billion, less than a fraction of the $229 billion in expenditure.
Qatar runs the world purely to show off its wealth and is not afraid of losing money? Of course not, Qatar is not stupid, this investment is far-reaching and significant, because Qatar may transform into a tourist country, with a new city to drive the entire country's employment and economy.
Through the World Cup, Qatar's infrastructure has been greatly upgraded and its international visibility has been enhanced. After this World Cup, Qatar is expected to become the largest tourist country in the Middle East, gradually moving away from the monostructure of oil exports.
Japanese fans
Muffled to make a fortune, this small Middle East country, is really extraordinary.
Small transparency in the Arab world
Qatar's geographical location is awkward, although it is located on the "gold mine" Persian Gulf, but it is only a small country, on the left is Saudi Arabia, the boss of the Arab world, and on the right is Iran, the feud of the Arabs.
King Al Thani of Qatar
Qatar has previously been "blacklisted" by Arab countries, accused of funding terrorist organizations and being too close to Iran. Qatar, on the other hand, innocently said that it did not fund any terrorist organizations and that it interacted with Iran because Iran is an important force on the Persian Gulf coast.
As a small country, Qatar is helpless, and once the Arab world and Iran turn their faces, it must be the first to suffer.
Qatar's Persian Gulf oil base
Qatar covers an area of only 11,500 square kilometers, almost 1.75 Shanghai, 90% of the country's land is hot and dry desert, and the country's population is only 2.6 million, of which more than 600,000 are migrant workers. Before the discovery of oil, Qatar was just a fishing village without any settled population except fishermen.
In the history of the Arabian Peninsula, Qatar has been a neglected frontier, and neither the native Assyrian Empire nor the foreign Alexander Empire has any interest in occupying this small place.
In 224 AD, Sassanid Persia rose to the surface and annexed the Persian Gulf coast, which brought Qatar to its territory. Before the discovery of oil, the mainstay of Qatar's economy was pearling and fishing. In the 7th century, after the rise of the Arab Empire and the expulsion of the Persians, the Qatari chiefs immediately converted to the Arab Empire and converted to Islam.
Arab merchants began to do business and missions all over the world, and Qatar was a natural and good port, where a large number of porcelain, tea, and spices from Southeast Asia were distributed. Through seaborne trade, Qatar has prospered and developed an economic model different from that of other Arab regions. History is doomed, and Qatar will depend on the sea.
However, after the decline of the Arab Empire, Qatar was occupied by Portuguese colonists, and in 1521 Qatar became a Portuguese colony. The positioning of Qatar by the Portuguese colonists was also a transit point for trade. The situation in the Middle East at this time is very interesting.
To the north is the Ottoman Empire founded by the Turks, to the east is the Persian Empire founded by the Persians, and to the west are the Portuguese, British, French and Dutch who came from far seas, and the Arabs can only survive in the cracks. In 1602, the Ottoman Empire joined the British in driving out the Portuguese who had occupied Qatar, followed by a coalition of Arab tribes in 1670.
In 1783, the Persians attempted to enter Qatar and were defeated by a coalition of Arab tribes, at a time when the tiny Qatar peninsula already had two sheikhs, one later went to Bahrain and the other stayed in Qatar.
On the coast of the Persian Gulf of the Arabian Peninsula, there are three Arab emirates, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, these Arab tribes are very loose and weak in fighting. In 1795, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia rose, and soon set its sights on these small points, and these Arab tribes in the Gulf region could only ask the Ottoman Empire and Egypt for help.
Qatari military fortress
Driving out the Saudis, the Ottomans extended their claws to Qatar, only to be cut off by the British, who first occupied Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates to facilitate the colonization of India, but in the 19th century, the British discovered huge reserves of oil and gas in the Gulf. In 1820, Britain signed agreements with the seven emirates of Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, and these Gulf states have since become British colonies.
At that time, Qatar was the domain of the Bahraini Khalifa family, but the Al Thani family in Qatar did not agree, and later, under British mediation, Qatar broke away from Bahrain and became a British vassal rather than a vassal of Bahrain. In 1938, the British officially began to exploit oil resources in Qatar, and Qatar became rich overnight.
In 1971, Qatar officially became independent, nationalized oil resources, Qatar's per capita GDP instantly rushed into the world's top five, currently as high as 61,800 US dollars, and per capita income as high as 148,000 US dollars, the world's first, really rich "flowing oil".
Qatar's question
However, Qatar has its own problems, the biggest of which is that it is too small to maintain its independent status, sandwiched between Saudi Arabia and Iran, two major powers in the Middle East, Qatar's road is very difficult, which requires him to maintain a very delicate balance.
Iranian army
At the same time, relations with Western countries, especially the United States, also affect Qatar's national fortunes. Qatar understands that its strength is oil, not force, so Qatar actively uses its "banknote capability" to compete for international discourse and enhance its international influence. The most typical example is Qatar's Al Jazeera, the "BBC" and "CNN" of the Arab world.
Iraq War
As the only television station with international influence in the Arab world, Al Jazeera has been on the front line of the situation in the Middle East, and it was Al Jazeera that first broadcast news to the world when the Iraq War broke out in 2003. The station is also the only television station that has interviewed bin Laden and al-Qaeda, which once left many Western media in the dust.
Osama bin Laden interviewed by Al Jazeera
In addition to media opinion, Qatar is most proud of its international image, although Qatar once quarreled with Saudi Arabia, provoking Saudi Arabia to dig a canal on the Qatari border and turn Qatar into an "island country", but Qatar and the West have always maintained friendly relations and have no fear.
The 2006 Asian Games and the 2022 World Cup have made Qatar grow a lot in the international community, and Qatar pursues such cultural influence. In 2011, Qatar also bought Paris Saint-Germain Football Club for a huge sum, turning the European powerhouse into an "Arab company".
President of Paris Saint-Germain Club
In 2017, Saint-Germain signed Brazilian star Neymar for 222 million euros and French star Kylian Mbappe for 145 million.
Qatar is also well aware of the international trend, and has been strengthening economic cooperation with China in recent years, such as the Qatar World Cup, which is basically a World Cup "built by China". Qatar has nothing else, that is, it has money, don't look small, but it has the thirteenth proven oil reserves in the world, the third in the world has proven natural gas reserves, and it is one of the richest countries in the world.
Speaking of details, Qatar currently has two mainland giant pandas, people did not use zoos, but specially spent 2 billion US dollars to build venues for these two pandas, which is really very "inhumane".
Chinese giant panda in Qatar
Qatar can be called a "tumbler of international politics", how to say? It is a member of the China-led Shanghai Economic Cooperation Organization and the United States' most important "non-NATO ally," while maintaining a highly strategic partnership with the European Union, which no country in the world will target except Saudi Arabia and Iran, which they hate for oil and gas.
The German ambassador and Qatar's energy minister, look at the sycophancy of the Germans
Because it is not only rich, but also really "righteous". It has signed a trillion-dollar deal with China, signed a gas deal with Germany, cooperated with French oil and gas companies to develop, and most of the French players are also playing for Qatar. Mbappe has made a fuss about transferring to Real Madrid, Spain, Qatar directly offered a price of "55 million euros per year", even French President Macron looked at the face of Qatari tycoons to persuade, really no one.
French President Emmanuel Macron and Mbappé
Of course, Qatar's local tycoons still did not expect that the players of their national team were five scum. Played 0-2 to Ecuador, a small South American country.
However, Qatar does have a vision beyond the average Middle Eastern oil country, people are playing football, but looking at the future of transformation, after all, oil will be sold out sooner or later, plan ahead.