World’s Biggest Sport Event May Leave Behind a $300 Billion Hangover
The most controversial and expensive FIFA World Cup ever came to a true fairytale ending last Sunday, followed live by football lovers from all continents. 700 000 fans and millions of migrant workers are now leaving Qatar to its own fate.
The FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar had it all: the clash of titans, an unforgettable ending, historical milestones, political and moral dilemmas, the public undressing of a very powerful and corrupt organization and a mindblowing $300 billion investment preparing and transforming the country for the world’s biggest sports event with new stadiums, hotels, apartments and road infrastructure.
The World Cup has also pushed the deadlines for already ongoing projects such as a new metro system, a modern shipping port, an extension of the main airport and the construction of a new city north of Doha.
Long before the tournament started, FIFA was accused for hypocrisy — that a sport that presents itself as open to everyone ignored human rights and political repression in Qatar for a share of its host’s oil riches in a nation with little cultural or historical connection to the game.
The hosting country has a lot of private interests in players and clubs around the world but also within the responsible organization FIFA. Without oil money and private interests it is highly unlikely that the tournament would have ended up in the Middle East, where the football roots are very shallow.
FIFA also ignored a bid by European teams to support LGBTQ diversity, women’s rights and the treatment of immigrant workers who built air conditioned stadiums in the desert. The availability of alcohol in the Muslim nation was also an explosive topic already before the opening game.
But despite the controversy around the whole spectacle (and partly because of the controversy), the 22nd World Cup in Qatar may end up as the most important and memorable one in its 100 year long history.
The 2022 WC was the first tournament played in the Middle East — i.e. in an Arab- and Muslim world. It was also the first tournament not played in the summer, because of the high temperatures in Qatar. Instead it finished less than one week before Christmas!
As a pure sports event, the FIFA World Cup is second to none. Compared to the friendly family events across the atlantic ocean, with confetti, cheerleaders, mascots and thousands of commercial breaks, the WC is a global event where whole nations are closing down when their home team is playing. Football is life and death in some of these countries.
The WC is played every four years and 80 nations have been participating during almost 100 years since the inauguration tournament in Uruguay 1930. Billions of people are following the tournament on radio, television and huge displays in the cities. It is essentially a one month football festival played in the format of a tournament and the whole spectacle is built up during a several year long qualification period.
And as a wrap-up of a football festival with hundred years of tradition, the organizers and the hosting nation couldn’t in their wildest dreams have hoped for a better ending. A grande finale between reigning champions France and 2-time champions Argentina with hundreds of thousands of supporters onsite Doha.
A match that for a few days shifted the focus from politics and controversy to the beautiful game of football and with an outcome that shifted focus from economic problems and polarized political landscape in the home country of the winning team.
In Argentina, years of economic crisis weigh heavily on the daily lives of people, where some 40 percent live in poverty as rampant inflation and a depreciating currency have decimated ordinary people’s savings and purchasing power.
Yet on Sunday the whole country was draped in the national blue and white colors as 45 million people celebrated a first World Cup success in 36 years. The match against reigning champions France was arguably the most exciting match of the whole tournament and it was followed by 1,5 billion viewers around the world.
On the pitch was the greatest football player of all time (who had won everything except the WC title), facing the young challenger trying to claim his second consecutive title. Both players are appropriately representing the same Qatar-owned club Paris St Germain in their everyday football life.
The old champion managed to outsmart the younger one, bringing home the title to Argentina for the first time in 36 years, and forever placing him on the national football throne. Tens of thousands of argentinian supporters had traveled 1500 km across the globe to watch their team captain, dressed in an arab Bisht, raise the golden $20M trophy.
Now the FIFA World Cup of 2022 has come to an end and will go down in history as one of the most memorable and important sporting events of all time. But the hotels, apartments, stadiums and infrastructure will remain in the desert and remind us of a project that has consumed mind-blowing amounts of oil money.
After a month when over 700 000 fans occupied Doha, Qatar will go back to being relatively empty. The fans have already started to return home, together with the majority of migrant workers. Real estate agents are concerned apartments will remain unfinished, while hotels will have a glut of rooms and some stadiums will never be used again.
Lacking a competitive local football league, many of the stadiums will be broken up or converted. And it is unclear how Qatar will remain attractive to tourists. After the winners depart Qatar’s Hamad International Airport airport the world’s attention will rapidly shift elsewhere.
Qatar has also been the subject of a new corruption scandal involving bribery allegations. And next month will put the spotlight back on how the world’s biggest sporting event was handed to a tiny oil-state in one of the world’s hottest regions as a US court case gets underway.
The economic and political hangover could be gigantic.
