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The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer

Jun 7, 2019

7 min read

Soccer emerges as the Gulf crisis’s potential icebreaker

By James M. Dorsey

A podcast version of this story is available on Soundcloud, Itunes, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, Spreaker, Pocket Casts and Tumblr

It was on the soccer pitch that 2022 World Cup host Qatar definitively shrugged off the UAE-Saudi-led economic and diplomatic boycott of the Gulf state as the crisis entered its third year with no prospect of resolution.

World soccer body FIFA’s abandonment of Saudi-United Arab Emirates-backed plans to expand the 2022 World Cup from 32 to…

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Soccer emerges as the Gulf crisis’s potential icebreaker

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James M. Dorsey

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