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Countries in the Gulf rely on migrant flows to serve their economies, particularly in the construction and infrastructuredevelopment fields. The FIFA World Cup is a catalyst for human rights, particularly labor reforms. This Article argues that in the case of developing states with poor human rights records, such as Qatar, who go on to host the event, their success should be measured by reference to progress. Progress itself should be assessed by reference to the status quo from the time of bidding up until and after the hosting of the tournament. This progress is a form of incremental implementation and is an incubator for human rights reform at the legislative level as well as a matter of culture by the people of the host state. A combination of both ensures that an enhanced human rights culture will not only culminate in broad legislative reform, but also that regression will be eliminated. The Article examines labor reforms as a manifestation of both legislative and cultural reform and notes that while there is a lot more that Qatar can do, its "progress" is significant and is the benchmark for its own future as well as for the Arab and Muslim world [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In October 2016, Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) announced a landmark reform package that ushered in a new era of global football governance known as FIFA 2.0. Despite decades of profitability for its most visible event - the Men's World Cup (MWC) - FIFA's leadership had come under intense scrutiny following a corruption and bribery scandal over the MWC selection process and hosting approaches. In this article, we use a critical investigative framework to examine the conjunctural politics of FIFA 2.0 through a critical analysis of official FIFA documents, published media reports, and official bid documents for the 2026 MWC - the first in the FIFA 2.0 era. By selecting the United 2026 bid, FIFA seemingly moved beyond market expansionism and urban redevelopment strategies, seeking instead to functionally and symbolically (re-)imagine the event's purpose as a principal agent for promoting global peace, unity, and international diplomacy. We offer a rich genealogy of FIFA's growing presence in global geopolitics – an approach we theorize as global peacemaking – and argue that FIFA's approach is a rationally and purposefully constructed organizational strategy aimed at exploiting the material and symbolic value(s) of global unity, peace, and international diplomacy as a means of capital accumulation, neoliberal marketization, and an intensification and consolidation of FIFA's global football empire. We discuss how FIFA's global peacemaking has accelerated the commercialization MWC and led to an increasingly interdependent and mutually constitutive relationship between the MWC and FIFA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The increase in the number of substitutions allowed in football from three to five has profoundly influenced the game. The impact of the rule change on the FIFA World Cup needs further verification. Methods: A total of 2,151 team substitution opportunities and 2,410 substitutions in 384 matches from six FIFA World Cups (2002–2022) were analyzed to assess its impact. One-way ANOVA was used to assess differences in average substitution times among the six FIFA World Cups. Factors affecting the time of substitutions were explored using Generalized Linear Mixed Models. Results: In each FIFA World Cup, over 92% of substitutions occurred during half-time and the second half, with a higher proportion in knockout stage matches than group stage matches. Group stage substitutions tended to happen earlier, particularly when teams were losing. As allowed substitutions increased, multiple substitutions in one opportunity rose from 4% to 38%. Of the 2,410 substitutions in the six FIFA World Cups, 21.45% were offensive, 63.65% were neutral and 14.90% were defensive. Winning teams made the highest percentage of defensive substitutions, while drawing or losing teams made the highest percentage of offensive substitutions. Match status significantly affected the time of the first three substitutions, and the presence of extra time significantly affected the time of the fourth substitution. Conclusion: Analysis of substitutions in FIFA World Cups (2002–2022) reveals: Most substitutions occur during halftime and the second half; Substitutions are earlier in group stages, especially for losing teams; Increased allowed substitutions lead to more multiple-player substitutions; Defensive substitutions are more common when winning, while offensive ones are frequent when drawing or losing; Match status, ranking gap, extra time, game round, and substitution rules significantly influence the time of team substitutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background The increase in the number of substitutions allowed in football from three to five has profoundly influenced the game. The impact of the rule change on the FIFA World Cup needs further verification. Methods A total of 2,151 team substitution opportunities and 2,410 substitutions in 384 matches from six FIFA World Cups (2002–2022) were analyzed to assess its impact. One-way ANOVA was used to assess differences in average substitution times among the six FIFA World Cups. Factors affecting the time of substitutions were explored using Generalized Linear Mixed Models. Results In each FIFA World Cup, over 92% of substitutions occurred during half-time and the second half, with a higher proportion in knockout stage matches than group stage matches. Group stage substitutions tended to happen earlier, particularly when teams were losing. As allowed substitutions increased, multiple substitutions in one opportunity rose from 4% to 38%. Of the 2,410 substitutions in the six FIFA World Cups, 21.45% were offensive, 63.65% were neutral and 14.90% were defensive. Winning teams made the highest percentage of defensive substitutions, while drawing or losing teams made the highest percentage of offensive substitutions. Match status significantly affected the time of the first three substitutions, and the presence of extra time significantly affected the time of the fourth substitution. Conclusion Analysis of substitutions in FIFA World Cups (2002–2022) reveals: Most substitutions occur during halftime and the second half; Substitutions are earlier in group stages, especially for losing teams; Increased allowed substitutions lead to more multiple-player substitutions; Defensive substitutions are more common when winning, while offensive ones are frequent when drawing or losing; Match status, ranking gap, extra time, game round, and substitution rules significantly influence the time of team substitutions.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) resulted in sporting event suspensions and cancellations, affecting competition calendars worldwide during 2020 and 2021. This challenged high-performance athletes' capacity to complete physical, technical, or tactical training during restricted movement measures (lockdown). With the Football World Cup organized in the last quarter of 2022, the past period of training and match disturbances challenged footballers concerning their performance and potential higher risk of injury at official matches' resumption. There has been considerable debate about the management of resuming professional football (soccer) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Governing bodies worldwide implemented measures to ensure a safe resumption of football. These precautionary measures aimed to protect the health of players, their support staff, and officials around the pitch and ensure the enjoyment of the event by spectators in the football stadiums. We have therefore narratively reviewed scientific papers about how football has resumed on the pitch and in the stands with special focus on the COVID-19 infection control strategies allowing footballers to perform again and supporters to enjoy the game after the 2020 global stop to sport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mega sports events generate significant media coverage and have a considerable economic impact on the host cities. Organizing such events is a complex task that requires extensive planning. The success of these events hinges on the attendees' satisfaction. Therefore, accurately predicting the number of fans from each country is essential for the organizers to optimize planning and ensure a positive experience. This study aims to introduce a new application for machine learning in order to accurately predict the number of attendees. The model is developed using attendance data from the FIFA World Cup (FWC) Russia 2018 to forecast the FWC Qatar 2022 attendance. Stochastic gradient descent (SGD) was found to be the top-performing algorithm, achieving an R2 metric of 0.633 in an Auto-Sklearn experiment that considered a total of 2523 models. After a thorough analysis of the result, it was found that team qualification has the highest impact on attendance. Other factors such as distance, number of expatriates in the host country, and socio-geopolitical factors have a considerable influence on visitor counts. Although the model produces good results, with ML it is always recommended to have more data inputs. Therefore, using previous tournament data has the potential to increase the accuracy of the results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Representing the nation in sports mega events has become a highly contested issue with the acceleration of the transnational movement of athletes. This research has examined Chinese people's attitudes to the naturalization of football players. The article discusses the findings in the context of the qualifying stages for the 2022 FIFA Men's World Cup by presenting and analysing data collected from semi-structured interviews and social media extracts. Two main issues were debated by Chinese people concerning the identity of naturalized athletes. One was the ethnicity of the naturalized footballers in relation to nationality, with some people questioning whether they belong to China and can represent China. The other issue concerned the players' skills and ability which influenced considerations of how much they could help China to qualify for the World Cup Finals. In relation to Chinese nationalism, national identity and Chinese sports, this study reveals, through the window provided by the presence of these naturalized footballers, how football, instrumentalism, nationalism and naturalization have been inextricably linked and have interacted with one another within the current context. The article analyses how pragmatic values have negotiated with ethno-cultural nationalism and impacted on the Chinese public's attitudes towards naturalized athletes, their image being presented in variable and dynamic ways by football fan netizens after each qualifying game. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Qatar's hosting of the FIFA World Cup (WC) was met with criticism and mixed-feelings, especially certain journalists from the Global North. Others acknowledged that it was going to boost economic activities and deepen the sports-tourism nexus. The overarching aim of this paper is to analyse fans' impressions of Qatar 2022 regarding their lived experiences in the city of Doha, which helps to understand and clarify some negative perceptions held before and during the World Cup. Interviews with 31 participants arbitrarily sampled from different countries reveal that Qatar 2022 brought fans imaginable excitement and indelible lived experiences. According to some, it will take decades for successive host countries to match those lived experiences, spectacular displays, smooth commutations and excellent organisation. Some tag it "the best FIFA world cup ever". Results show that Qatar 2022 inspired, gingered and spurred fans on albeit, other mixed-feelings associated with the tournament. We report that there is a perceived image-rebranding strategy that worked successfully for the host nation. The fans further recommend that FIFA revisit its ticketing processes and systems to make them more accessible and fluid without difficulties. Fans suggest that subsequent hosts of the World Cup could be confined to 'one city' only so that they can watch two matches a day as experienced in Qatar. However, fans have concerns about the WC event becoming more expensive for an average supporter in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors assess the effectiveness of campaigns designed to increase the sport activities of migrant workers in Qatar, host nation of the FIFA Men's World Cup Qatar 2022TM. The authors used the integrative model of behavioral prediction (IM) as a guide and conducted ethnographic interviews with migrant workers in Qatar. The results suggest that the respondents have very low participation rates, positive attitudes towards the sports campaigns and desire to participate more but are hampered by environmental factors beyond their control including time off of work, transportation and money. Utilization of external factors is necessary for the management and assessment of sports campaigns targeted at migrant workers and by extension, other populations. The inclusion of external elements from the IM is especially important in the design of sports campaigns targeted at migrant workers. Focusing exclusively on internal perceptions, attitudes and beliefs risks missing the factors that prevent the campaigns from succeeding. Sports opportunities are not often targeted at migrant laborers nor assessed; the study fills this gap. The external factors from the IM are underutilized. The study addresses this gap and provides valuable insight that can guide the management and assessment of sports and leisure opportunities for migrant workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The FIFA World Cup, which represents the highest level in football, is regarded as a showcase to unfold the development trends of modern football, thus arousing great interest among researchers. However, most of the previous research designs studied the simple linear correlation between technical indicators and game outcomes, which may overlook the complex causalities in football performance. The aim of current study was to introduce a new method to examine winning patterns emerging from Qatar 2022 through a configurational lens. To this end, fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) was conducted using 98 samples (n = 98) out of 49 Qatar 2022 matches discriminating winning and losing teams in regular time (group stage) and in 30 min of extra time (knockout stage). Then, we selected seven variables as our causal conditions, namely, shots on target, possession, defensive line breaks, crosses, receptions in the final third, forced turnovers, and direct pressures. Necessity analysis and sufficiency analysis of configurations were conducted according to fsQCA requirements. The fsQCA operation showed that no individual causal condition is necessary to winning a game and four configurations were derived from the QCA results and these combinations of conditions fall into three typologies of play style: a possession play style, direct play style, and all-round play style. The results confirmed the fact that football is a complex system and suggested that a winning outcome is often produced by combinations of multiple factors. The findings of the current study contribute to the literature by introducing the configurations of various technical and tactical indicators that could raise the possibility of winning and can be used by practitioners working within the fields of player development, coaching, and match preparation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the study was to identify the technical-tactical indicators and differentiate collective positioning between the qualified teams and teams non-qualified for the final phase of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, considering effective playing time. The aim was also to understand the interaction of variables that significantly increased the likelihood of being qualified in the analysed championship. We conducted a comparative analysis that covered all matches played (N=64), evaluating 93 technical-tactical indicators, 24 collective positional indicators and six hybrid indicators. The absolute technical-tactical indicators were normalised based on the effective playing time of each team in each match. We used t-tests and binary logistic regression (R2 Nagelkerke = .738 - AUC = .955) to analyse differences and determine their statistical significance (p<.05). Our analysis revealed significant differences in 33 indicators, suggesting that certain technical-tactical aspects played a crucial role in teams' performance. Furthermore, through multivariate analysis, we were able to identify that offensive efficiency in set pieces, the height of the defensive line during the offensive phase, and the ability to reduce the available playing space for the opposing team during the defensive phase emerged as the main indicators that allowed us to classify the teams' performance. These findings enable coaches to use the identified key indicators as performance predictors to devise match strategies aimed at enhancing the effectiveness of their teams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing service marketing literature has shown the relationship between service quality, satisfaction, and behavioural intentions among sport spectators; however, the media's experience working at these events has largely been neglected. Journalists both report on the sporting event and the destination or host of the event. To reduce the gap in this research area, this study examined how media service quality impacted journalists' satisfaction, which ultimately influences their behavioural intentions in their reporting of the host city or country and their revisit intentions. Through surveying 211 journalists who covered two major international sporting events (the 2018 FIFA World Cup and the 2019 FINA World Aquatics Championships), findings revealed that sport journalists' service satisfaction was determined by the following services: information, interactions with employees/volunteers, and operating time. Also, media professionals' destination image and service satisfaction had positive relationships with their behavioural intentions, word of mouth, and intention to positively cover the event. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to identify the social impacts of hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar on its citizens and residents. Also, it aimed to reveal the differences in these impacts across various demographic variables, including identity, age group, and gender. The researcher adopted a descriptive methodology to achieve these objectives, collecting data mainly through a questionnaire administered to a diverse sample of 411 individuals who willingly participated in the study. The study's findings unveiled a range of significant social effects from this momentous event hosted in Qatar. Notably, these effects manifested in improving the country's image, fostering an incomparable sense of community pride, developing a heightened feeling of belonging, and arousing an overwhelming enthusiasm within the populace in Qatar towards hosting such grand-scale sporting events. Moreover, the World Cup fostered stronger feelings of security and social cohesion. Based on these results, the study advocates recommendations for future investigative endeavors. Despite its significant results, the study recommends future research to encompass a more diverse and inclusive representation from various regions. This is crucial to understand better the social outcomes of large-scale sporting events among the population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior to the FIFA 2022 World Cup, Nordic news media emphasised their ambitions of persistently covering problematic aspects of this mega-event to be hosted in Qatar, a country subjected to severe criticism of its human rights breaches in the build-up to the event. Focusing on the genre of commentary journalism—a form committed to articulating opinions on social and cultural issues—this study illuminates how key Nordic news media argued for their views on the World Cup 2022. Drawing on empirical material from Danish and Norwegian broadcasters and tabloids, the study analyses commentaries (excluding “sports only” commentaries) published during the event, highlighting the types of arguments, the discourses they articulate or imply, and their attribution of agency to organisational actors. Although a critical and contextualising argumentation runs through commentaries made during the tournament, the reasoning changes its character to such a degree that it is pertinent to categorise the commentaries as reflecting two distinct discursive phases. Argumentation in the first phase sustains a critique of FIFA and the organiser. Arguments were typically formulated as personal attacks but tended to elaborate on their premises by providing fact-based background from investigations of power abuse. The argumentation in the second phase changes its character by more clearly emphasising the action needed to transform current problematic circumstances in accordance with stated goals, not least a reformation of FIFA. The commentators now tend to be less moralising and more diverse and reflective in how they argue for changes in the governance of mega-events in football.

Taking the FIFA World Cup in Qatar as a point of departure, this article analyses the changing role of national associations of sports journalists in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Introducing the concept of meta-journalistic discourse and well-established media system theories, it is argued that Nordic sports journalism’s negotiations of professional practices and standards are shaped by a particular media systemic context with distinct Nordic welfare state-oriented features. One such feature is a tradition of using collective, organized social groups, like democratically based voluntary associations, as instruments for social change. The empirical study explores this through a qualitative thematic analysis of the changing structures, identities, and practices of the national associations of sports journalists across the three countries. This illustrates how the organizations in particular during the last two decades have started very similar processes of transformation away from being mainly social clubs. The associations have used their collective frameworks and bargaining power to ensure independent journalists’ access to sports organizations and athletes, and they have engaged in negotiations of what sports journalism is and what constitutes sports journalism in a sports media landscape shaped by strong combined forces of digitization and politicization.

The FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 received an unprecedented amount of criticism from civil society and human rights organizations for the human rights risks and adverse human rights impacts related to organizing and staging the event. Interestingly, it was the first World Cup that was delivered with a team of human rights volunteers monitoring human rights issues at event venues on match days.1 Given the novelty of this project, this Article first informs about the FIFA human rights volunteers (HRV) program in general and second, it analyses to what extent it can be considered a concrete and practical example of an organization’s human rights due diligence (HRDD) and remedy efforts. As some of the broader business and human rights literature suggests, there seems to be a lack of practical examples of how corporations implement HRDD, making FIFA’s HRV program an exception worth studying.

The article examines how the strategy of constructing the social problem of animal cruelty in Russia has become successful in the context of preparing and holding sports mega- events. The constructionist theory of social problems by M. Spector, J. Kitsius, and J. Best is developed on the basis of N. Elias’s civilization theory, as well as on the studies of mega- events in non-western countries. The analytical scheme of hierarchically interconnected levels of industries of social problems initiating, in interaction, the very actualization of various social conditions on the threshold of mega- events is offered: these are regional, national, and international. Two cities were chosen, Kazan and Sochi, for the empirical fields of research. The research sample included materials from the media of regional and federal publications. The articles on the topic of stray animals in Sochi and Kazan in the eve of the sports mega- events were also searched on the websites of major international news agencies and newspapers. The method of discourse analysis was applied to the rhetoric of the main actors, to identify the main techniques of typification and the main discourses that are formed around the issue of the homeless animals’ treatment. Longitudinal media analysis allowed us to see how the rhetoric of actors of the national industry of social problems changes under the pressure of the international industry of social problems. We consider discursive constructions that are actively promoted at the regional level, but are modified or disappear at the federal and international levels.

This article is an illustration of 'Lessons from the Field'. The Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management has begun to present lessons coming from professionals engaged in crisis management. 'Lessons for the Field' provides insights that can be useful to other professionals. Moreover, 'Lessons from the Field' can stimulate ideas for researchers and provide resources for educators. Hosting a mega‐sporting event such as the International Federation of Football Associations (FIFA) World Cup presents many healthcare challenges, especially when organized over a small geographical area with many international supporters potentially increasing the country's normal population by 50%. This article presents how a system‐wide tabletop simulation exercise was planned to test Qatar's healthcare system's readiness to respond to a potential major incident during the FIFA World Cup. The healthcare system‐wide tabletop exercise lasted about 4 h with participants engaging in all the various facilities as expected. It provided opportunities for everyone to put their knowledge of major incident response and mass casualty management into practice. The exercise preparation ensured it ran smoothly for all participants who quickly understood how to engage in the activity. It enabled organizers and participants to identify potential gaps in systems and processes, but also in their own ability to manage such situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on how U.S. tax policies could impact Major League Soccer (MLS) by increasing player talent and strengthening youth development, especially in the context of hosting the 2026 World Cup. Topics include historical challenges faced by MLS, the comparison of U.S. soccer with international leagues, and potential benefits of offering tax incentives to foreign players.

The FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 received an unprecedented amount of criticism from civil society and human rights organizations for the human rights risks and adverse human rights impacts related to organizing and staging the event. Interestingly, it was the first World Cup that was delivered with a team of human rights volunteers monitoring human rights issues at event venues on match days. Given the novelty of this project, this Article first informs about the FIFA human rights volunteers (HRV) program in general and second, it analyses to what extent it can be considered a concrete and practical example of an organization's human rights due diligence (HRDD) and remedy efforts. As some of the broader business and human rights literature suggests, there seems to be a lack of practical examples of how corporations implement HRDD, making FIFA's HRV program an exception worth studying. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research focuses on the Spanish strategy to balance its political non-recognition of Kosovo and the respect to the Balkan country's full membership in FIFA and UEFA. Considering the relevance of naming as a political tool in cases of sporting diplomatic conflict, our driving research questions are: How relevant is the name of Kosovo for Spain in its use of sport to perform this state non-recognition? More specifically, how and to what extent did the official name of Kosovo become a key diplomatic element for Spain during the Qatar 2022 World Cup qualifiers? Methodologically, we have applied a content analysis of the Spanish Football Federation, the Spanish public broadcasting corporation and three main private media outlets. The conclusion is that the stronger diplomatic mobilization of Kosovo forced Spain to accept all of its national symbology at the protocol level. Therefore, there was a deliberate attempt not only to avoid the use of the names 'Kosovo' or 'Republic of Kosovo' by the Spanish establishment, but also using lower cases when no other alternative was possible. However, its application was inconsistent among the executing actors due to the lack of internalization of the naming policy, thus making it ineffective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil conveyed – by its slogan, mascot, posters and ceremonies – the idea of a Mulatto Brazil (an inventive and festive nation under the sign of two idiosyncratic worlds). We argue that such a reference – based on the duality between Dionysius and Apollo (as contemplated by Nietzsche and brought to the context of Brazil and football by Freyre) – was used as a means of bringing forward an idea of the exceptionality of Brazilian society (based on nationalist concepts of ethnicity) to attract tourists, ease social tensions and justify the event's costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How to select participants for a sports tournament when they are divided into different sets, and one should find a fair number of slots for each set? We propose to address this question by resorting to standard tools from the fair allocation literature. To frame our discussion, we focus on the increase in the number of participating teams in the FIFA World Cup. We explore the allocation of additional slots among continental confederations. We consider 10 different allocations. Based on our analysis, we can argue that the European soccer confederation (UEFA) has a solid basis to claim for additional slots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to identify the social impacts of hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar on its citizens and residents. Also, it aimed to reveal the differences in these impacts across various demographic variables, including identity, age group, and gender. The researcher adopted a descriptive methodology to achieve these objectives, collecting data mainly through a questionnaire administered to a diverse sample of 411 individuals who willingly participated in the study. The study's findings unveiled a range of significant social effects from this momentous event hosted in Qatar. Notably, these effects manifested in improving the country's image, fostering an incomparable sense of community pride, developing a heightened feeling of belonging, and arousing an overwhelming enthusiasm within the populace in Qatar towards hosting such grand-scale sporting events. Moreover, the World Cup fostered stronger feelings of security and social cohesion. Based on these results, the study advocates recommendations for future investigative endeavors. Despite its significant results, the study recommends future research to encompass a more diverse and inclusive representation from various regions. This is crucial to understand better the social outcomes of large-scale sporting events among the population.

Nour Isleem,1,&ast; Lina Naseralallah,1,2,&ast; Somaya Koraysh,1 Ahmad Abu Ghalyoun,1 Shaikha Alnaimi,1 Abdulrouf Pallivalapila,1 Moza Al Hail1 1Pharmacy Department, Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, Qatar; 2School of Pharmacy, College of Medical and Dental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK&ast;These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Nour Isleem, Pharmacy Department, Hamad Medical Corporation, P.O.Box 42, Doha, Qatar, Tel +974 3100 3071, Email NIsleem@hamad.qaPurpose: The aim of this study is to assess the level of preparedness of pharmacists working in the emergency department at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) for any emergency disasters that may take place during the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ by evaluating their awareness (A), attitude (A), and readiness (R).Methods: A cross-sectional quantitative observational study was conducted through a web-based survey. The survey was distributed among emergency pharmacists working in general hospitals under HMC. The questionnaire was composed of three major domains assessing awareness, attitude, readiness, as well as an additional domain to collect the participants’ demographics. Student’s t-test, analysis of variance, Pearson’s correlation, and linear regression were used with an alpha level of 0.05.Results: Most pharmacists working in the emergency departments at HMC had high levels of awareness (76.9%), attitude (92%), and readiness (53.8%) for any emergency disasters that may occur during the FIFA World Cup 2022. Nonetheless, almost half of the respondents reported moderate level of readiness for emergency events. Pharmacists with > 10 years’ practice experience had significantly higher AAR score compared to those with < 5 years’ experience (P = 0.002). Significant direct positive correlations were found among the 3 AAR parameters (P < 0.05). Attitude was found to be a significant predictor of readiness (P < 0.05). A model composed of attitude and awareness could predict 12% of readiness score.Conclusion: Emergency pharmacists at HMC have high level of preparedness for any emergency disaster event during the World Cup. Future research should focus on the development of theory-based action framework for pharmacy departments during mass gathering events.Keywords: disaster preparedness, disaster management, emergency medicine, pharmacist, mass gathering, FIFA World Cup

PurposeThis study aimed to explore emergency pharmacy workforce perspectives and experiences in providing pharmaceutical care during mass gathering events (i.e., FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™).MethodsA qualitative methodology was employed using focus groups discussions. Emergency pharmacists across Hamad Medical Corporation were invited to participate using a combination of purposive and snowball sampling. Focus groups were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and validated. Inductive thematic analysis was undertaken to generate key themes and subthemes.ResultsFour focus groups were conducted which included 21 participants and generated five major themes. Whilst participants had mixed opinions in relation to their preparedness to practice during the World Cup, they perceived their experience as successful and smooth. The primary perceived facilitators were management support, mobile medical units, and high public health awareness. The main highlighted barriers were related to staff insufficiency, medications availability, and cultural and language challenges. Participants recommended pharmacist’s role identification in mass gatherings, development of pharmacy action plan, and offering simulation training and pharmacy-specific training.ConclusionDespite the perceived barriers, pharmacists reported positive views in relation to their experience in providing pharmaceutical care during mass gatherings. Future research should focus on the development of theory-driven action framework for pharmacy departments to adopt during mass gatherings.

Mega-events have always been an attractive topic for sports management academics. We used scientometric software packages to look at the studies on this topic that have been added to the Web of Science database in the last 68 years. Not only did we give an overview of the background information of the researchers, the status of their collaborations, and the countries and institutions they represented, but we also pointed out active and influential publication sources on this topic. We focused on the Olympic Games and other sports mega-events like the FIFA World Cups, as well as the environmental, tourism, economic, social, political, and cultural aspects of these events. We also made a list of the countries, organizations, and scholars who have made important contributions to the field. Researchers in sports management and sporting event hosts can both use this study as a guide for their own work.

An interview with Heather L. Dichter, an Associate Professor of Sport Management and Sport History at De Montfort University in Leicester, UK, is presented. She discussed the concept of sport diplomacy, emphasizing its multifaceted nature and historical significance, highlighting how sports organizations often intersect with politics. She mentioned instances from history, such as the politicization of the Olympic Games and FIFA World Cup.

Women's soccer has grown exponentially around the world over the last two decades. However, it still faces blatant wage discrimination, both domestically and internationally. While the Fédération internationale de football association (FIFA), has gradually increased the Women's World Cup prize money over the years, it has also increased the Men's World Cup prize money to such a degree that the gap between the men's and women's prize monies is actually increasing with every World Cup. This Note analyzes why FIFA's decision to increase the prize money gap is not only subject to E.U. law but is also a violation of E.U. law-a violation that can and should be resolved in the European Court of Justice. This Note also argues that Switzerland, under the Equal Remuneration Convention, has a legal obligation to enact legislation that incentivizes FIFA to take concrete steps toward decreasing the prize money gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The plan to host the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Indonesia has finally been canceled. The cancellation was triggered by the rejection of several Indonesian political figures towards the presence of the U-20 Israeli national team in the country. FIFA, as the governing body of world football, promptly took action by canceling the draw event that was supposed to take place in Bali. In a short period of time, FIFA officially revoked Indonesia's status as the host of the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup. This study utilizes the Pan and Kosicki framing analysis framework with a constructivist approach to examine how both media outlets construct this phenomenon. The research approach is comparative as the author aims to compare different perspectives from both online media sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do international sports events shape repression in authoritarian host countries? International tournaments promise unique gains in political prestige through global media attention. However, autocrats must fear that foreign journalists will unmask their wrongdoings. We argue that autocracies solve this dilemma by strategically adjusting repression according to the spatial-temporal presence of international media. Using original, highly disaggregated data on the 1978 World Cup, we demonstrate that the Argentine host government largely refrained from repression during the tournament but preemptively cleared the streets beforehand. These adjustments specifically occurred around hotels reserved for foreign journalists. Additional tests demonstrate that (1) before the tournament, repression turned increasingly covert, (2) during the tournament, targeting patterns mirrored the working shifts of foreign journalists, (3) after the tournament, regime violence again spiked in locations where international media had been present. Together, the article highlights the human costs of megaevents, contradicting the common whitewashing rhetoric of functionaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

National Visions are policy instruments characterized by an outlook that is constitutional in nature, while also appealing to a country's external relations, as well as its citizens. They are unique to the law and policy of Gulf States and set out decade-long policy aims that are subsequently translated into legislation or/and foreign policy objectives. This article examines the sports-related dimension of the Qatari National Vision, which was the basis for the country's bid for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. It is demonstrated that the constitutional nature of the sports dimension of the Vision helped to shape social attitudes in Qatar, as well as facilitate a rapid legislative reform in the field of labor relations, such that would have been unthinkable in the absence of strong sports-oriented policy underpinning the entire nation. National Visions should therefore be viewed as accelerators of social change and drivers of rapid legislative reform, even if they themselves do not outward display normative qualities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The exogenous impact on public expenditures and the short time frame for their execution, represented by investments and other expenses, required to host the FIFA World Cup, create a scenario more propitious for corrupt practices that are not properly monitored by society due to the enthusiasm generated by the preparations for the event. The objective of this study is to evaluate the effect of preparation for and realization of the World Cup in the host countries on the public perception of corruption in those countries. For this purpose, we employ the synthetic control method as described by Abadie, Diamond and Hainmueller (2010), who utilized the announcement of the host country as a shock to the Corruption Perception Index formulated by Transparency International. The host countries analyzed are Germany (2006), South Africa (2010) and Brazil (2014). The announcement of the host country was related to an increase in the perception of corruption in the countries analyzed, but this effect tended to wane as the event approached. The lower corruption perception evidenced by the method does not jibe with the scenario of corruption scandals that emerged after the event, mainly in South Africa and Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A personal narrative is presented in which author discusses on the experience of watching a World Cup match in Moroccan writer Tahar Ben Jelloun's house in Morocco, highlighting the tensions between supporting France or Morocco and reflecting on the complex history of colonialism.

Mega sports events generate significant media coverage and have a considerable economic impact on the host cities. Organizing such events is a complex task that requires extensive planning. The success of these events hinges on the attendees’ satisfaction. Therefore, accurately predicting the number of fans from each country is essential for the organizers to optimize planning and ensure a positive experience. This study aims to introduce a new application for machine learning in order to accurately predict the number of attendees. The model is developed using attendance data from the FIFA World Cup (FWC) Russia 2018 to forecast the FWC Qatar 2022 attendance. Stochastic gradient descent (SGD) was found to be the top-performing algorithm, achieving an R2 metric of 0.633 in an Auto-Sklearn experiment that considered a total of 2523 models. After a thorough analysis of the result, it was found that team qualification has the highest impact on attendance. Other factors such as distance, number of expatriates in the host country, and socio-geopolitical factors have a considerable influence on visitor counts. Although the model produces good results, with ML it is always recommended to have more data inputs. Therefore, using previous tournament data has the potential to increase the accuracy of the results.

Purpose: To report creatine kinase ([CK]) responses during a soccer World Cup preparatory and first-leg period and to determine the influence of aerobic fitness on postmatch [CK] responses. Methods: Eleven national-team players were analyzed in this study. A lactate threshold test was performed during the first 3 d, whereas fingertip blood was drawn most mornings (21 out of 30 d) for [CK] measurements. One-way repeated-measures analysis of variance was used for determining the effect of time on [CK] measurements, whereas Pearson correlation coefficient was used for assessing associations between the changes in [CK] and velocities associated with blood lactate concentrations of 2 (v2) and 4 mmol·L−1 (v4). Results: Peak [CK] concentrations were consistently reached on the first day after the match with values of 474 (261), 520 (419), and 460 (126) U·L−1 but with no significant differences between them. [CK] concentrations returned to prematch values (331 [201] U·L−1) on the second day after the match. The change in [CK] concentration between prematch and postmatch day was largely correlated (r =.614, P =.044) with v2. Conclusions: Top-level soccer players display low levels of muscle damage during official tournaments, and they recover before the next match. Postmatch muscle damage is greater in players with higher aerobic endurance because this fitness quality enables them to execute high-intensity activities known to be a major contributor to muscle damage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract International football competitions like the Continental Championships, Leagues, and World Cup serve as the focal point of large‐scale tournaments with an international scope. With specialized local representatives serving as diplomatic envoys, they can represent interests, beliefs, and history across boundaries. The advancement of world health can also be reflected in this representation. Football can play a crucial role in accomplishing various health goals by raising audience knowledge and encouraging behavioral and lifestyle changes. The World Cup may provide a platform for increased interest in the potential for global health diplomacy. A systems approach is needed to contextualize international soccer within the reality of global health. The World Cup for Health's diplomacy should negotiate with stakeholders and oversee their interactions to provide initiatives and activities that support the globally shared and aligned viewpoint on health outcomes. This article seeks to provide a long‐lasting framework for effectively using the Fédération Internationale de Football Association World Cup, an enormously popular sporting event, as a diplomatic instrument for promoting global health.

We examine the impact of fantasies used in the redevelopment of sport mega-event cities on host communities; particularly as related to the male-dominated FIFA World Cup and forced prostitution. We start with a discussion of event fantasies, particularly those that circulate in relation to humanitarian aid and the alleged involvement of women and children in forced labour and sexual exploitation. We trace these fantasies across several FIFA host cities since the 2006 FIFA World Cup, hosted in Germany, to leverage continual and perpetuate attention (and profit) through the non-profit industrial complex. These fantasies have facilitated and coordinated collaborative consensus amongst state authorities and allies to act in a meaningful manner even as the evidence of forced prostitution is still scant—while the realities of people that continue to be subjected to violent and exploitative labour in the construction of stadia, athlete recruitment, or equipment and apparel industries are seldom addressed. We do this to question the lived impact of policies and personalities of rescue on people engaged, consensually, in erotic labour within host cities, that are often made target of rescue intervention. The figure of the proverbial sex slave, as a highly racialized and hypersexualized trope, is mobilized through the sport mega-event to further police the bodies of all women in labour and migration. We end with a cautious message to future host cities, particularly cities implicated in the 2026 FIFA World Cup within Mexico, Canada, and the United States, of the highly-profitable and politically-advantageous rhetoric of damsel in distress.

Football is an integral part of Brazil's historical-cultural process, and tourism represents one of the segments deeply impacted by the occurrence of sporting mega-events. The present study aims to present and critically reflect on the main legacies and impacts that these events brought to the Brazilian population. This paper is based on notes surrounding the legacies put forward for the city of São Paulo. To do this, information gathering lends to suggestions that help situate future planning and organization. The purpose of this paper concerns sociocultural and economic futures and the role of tourism and events for local communities based on the current realities and challenges in Brazil. The article is based on a qualitative approach, where descriptive and explanatory information is triangulated. This study utilizes a range of methods, employing a combination of bibliographic research, documentary analysis, and content analysis to frame the base of the research. Moreover, we use field research techniques such as semi-structured interviews with managers, questionnaires administered to residents, interviews with local representatives, direct observation, and active participation in events held at the main stadium associated with sport mega-events in São Paulo, namely, the Neo Química Arena. Noteworthy findings demonstrate a discrepancy between the objectives pursued by host city planners, who strive to maximize the positive legacies encompassing local infrastructure, stadiums, and the city's image, and the experiences reported by local residents, who have encountered negative impacts and legacies resulting from the same sport mega-event. These adverse effects include issues such as flooding, gentrification, exclusion from decision-making processes, and real estate speculation. Stadiums are considered the greatest tangible legacies of sport mega-events, although their construction and maintenance costs are questionable. The participation of local residents seems to be essential in the promotion, knowledge, appropriation, belonging, support, and transparency in all phases of the mega-event planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This viewpoint addresses notions of impact and soft power. Two bidding documents submitted in 2018 by Morocco and a joint bid by Canada, Mexico, and the United States are explored, focusing specifically on language used when discuss the term "impact." Soft power is important to consider and use as a framework for interpretation because bidding for events involves the ability to persuade and use power as a medium to showcase the ability to host. Both bid proposals place less attention on economic impact, and emphasize the social and environmental impact that these events will have. Each bid document had a defined statement on legacy, but legacy did not dominate either bid as both put focus on how they would create impact in the present time. This approach is something that brings people into the directions of the bid, in terms of how social, economic, or environmental impact would be achieved, and directives positioned how they would make people aware of impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By hosting spectacular international mega-events such as the 2022 World Cup and investing in the heavyweights of global football such as Paris St. Germain, Newcastle United or Manchester City, the monarchies of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) – in particular Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) – are heavily engaged in 'football diplomacy' to gain more leverage in terms of regional and international politics, bolster their global reputation, consolidate power on an internal and external level and promote economic diversification. In doing so, these GCC monarchies instrumentalise football for the projection of soft power with the aim of preserving geostrategic interests, consolidating legitimacy and promoting a respective national 'football identity'. As such, they are competing for 'beauty', 'brilliance' and 'benignity'. In addition, sports (particularly football) are drivers of domestic and international human development, as GCC states such as Qatar are increasingly investing in Sports for Development (S4D) efforts. As sport diplomacy is also at risk of 'soft disempowerment', S4D provides an instrument to counter international criticism and promote social cohesion and national identity politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]