Qatar football lovers, 2013
Since the announcement that the 2022 FIFA World Cup will be hosted by Qatar, this state has taken on a dominating role in the economic world of soccer.
Regular acquisitions of European first and second league clubs, constructions of the infrastructures for the 2022 Football World Cup, the launch of new TV channels specialized in transmitting European International Footbal cups such as the Ligua, The Première League, etc. Nothing is too big or too beautiful for Qatar.
The current Heir to the thrown of Qatar, Prince Tamin bin Hamad Al-Thani is the perfect example: a huge fan of soccer just like Albert, Prince of Monaco; Prince Tamin bought the Paris-Saint-Germain club in 2011. And since then, every year the PSG club holds its summer training session in The Aspire Academy of Sport Excellence in Doha.
Even though the Paris-Saint-Germain only represents a very small part of Qatar’s investments abroad, it has become the perfect communication tool, as explains PSG president Nasser Al Khelaifi «We need to open Qatar’s doors for the entire world to admire the wonders of our country”.
Isabelle Eshraghi has been working in depth on what soccer represent in Qatar and how the Qatari people have taken it on. Doha has already hosted many championships such as the Asian Cup 2011 and regularly organizes friendly tournaments. Also, a high standard Qatari National Championship takes place in the capital.
Qatar’s Aspire Sport Academy, with its state-of-the-art equipment and highly skilled employees, provides top-level training to invest in tomorrow’s stars of the sporting world. It is within this academy that the best players are picked up to be part on the Qatari team for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
TV has its role in this consecration of soccer, especially with Al Jazeera Sports, which takes on ex-soccer players to work as sport commentators, both on a national but also international level, with the Al Kaas channel.
Qatar hasn’t a great soccer history but, in the café of Doha’s souk, at the stadium’s surrounding, in the parks and in the malls, the new generation shows a great interest for this sport. Even the girls are involved: a female national team has been created in 2009 and a national competition, with 8 female teams, is running every year.
Yet, even if Qatar does not have a long tradition in soccer, in most of the cafés in Doha’s souk, outside of the stadiums and in shopping malls, one can feel and see a real passion for the football game. the emergence of the notion of the football fan as well as the beginning of a consumption of goods derived from the sport. And even girls now are getting the hang of it: an only women team was created in 2009 as well as a football league which encloses 8 national women teams that play every year.
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