Qatar’s Global Sports Strategy: Soft Power and the 2022 World Cup

When seeking out an example of how sport and politics intertwine, few case studies compare to that of Qatar and its acquisition of the rights to stage the 2022 FIFA World Cup finals. As we go on to show in this chapter, Qatar’s use of sport seeks to serve specific emerging- and small-state objectives, a key part of which centres on the desire to showcase the country to the world, and, in doing so, exercise soft power on the global stage. As arguably the quintessential example of sports-soft disempowerment, however, in a multitude of ways—which we discuss here—Qatar’s attempts through sport have significantly backfired, leading to severe international critique over its social policies and laws at home, which, in turn, led to the fall of ex-FIFA President Joseph ‘Sepp’ Blatter after 17 years at the head of football’s world governing body.