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Article: The Middle East as a Top Quality International Sporting Venue
The Middle East as a Top Quality International Sporting Venue
It seems that the ramifications of the FIFA vote in December 2010 to award the 2022 World Cup to Qatar are still being felt across the football world. Whilst there was no denying it was a leftfield decision by the executive committee, it wasn’t as if the Middle East had never held a sporting event previously.
In the last twenty years, an incredible amount of money has been invested across the region to make both Dubai and Doha two of the rising stars of international sport. If we truly believe in the power of sport as a global force, then how can we continue to ignore the investment and facilities available to a wide variety of sporting associations. Formula One, The European Golf Tour and Twenty Twenty Cricket have all been embraced by the Middle East as the growing economic power of the region has seen them begun to challenge the established order of sport event hosting.
Formula One is perhaps the best example, with the current race calendar including Abu Dhabi and Bahrain which have complemented other races in Turkey, China, Singapore and South Korea. At the turn of the century, that would have been unthinkable to some, yet they have all added something different to the competition, perhaps even improved it.
The European Golf Tour, whilst hardly struggling, has sometimes struggled to keep a regular calendar of events in Europe due to loss of sponsorship and high profile players turning up every week. By trying to improve the quality of the fields and take on the power of the American PGA tour, the European Golf Association has had to think outside the box to offer an all year product.
By utilising the warmer climes of South Africa, Asia and Australia whilst now having the annual race to Dubai, The European Tour has an extra 3 months of golf to attract sponsors and top quality golfers which it simply couldn’t do by staying in Europe. To survive, the tournament has had to adapt and has been gratefully accepted in the Middle East. If anything, it needed the Middle East to survive.
What is in no doubt it football’s popularity across the whole of the Middle East has consistently supplied teams to the World Cup throughout the last 40 years, it now seems incredible that Iran’s debut in 1978 saw the first truly Middle Eastern country compete in the World Cup. Since that World Cup in Argentina, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and the UAE have all qualified and the AFC has seen its participation grow from a play off chance to 4 regular participants as the World Cup becomes a truly global competition.
We are now used to seeing Middle Eastern countries compete in every World Cup and the AFC has consistently given us some memorable performances. With Australia moving from the Oceanic qualifying arena to the AFC, the competition has been strengthened and the Middle East has become a regular host of the Asian Football Cup since Iran in 1968 and Qatar has held the event twice.
With competition continuing to grow, it is only fair that the Middle East becomes a player in the World Cup and by utilising these massive events; it can only be of a benefit to the area.
As the tournament is expected to grow to 40 teams, it is conceivable that we could be seeing 6 Asian and Middle East teams competing in Qatar in 2022.
By continuing to invest in sport, the whole region is benefitting from a higher profile. Coupled with the progress in football sponsorship across Europe, the Middle East has begun to shake the very foundations of what was the established order and that can only be a good thing for the Middle East. By awarding the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, the whole of the region will benefit for generations to come.
Written by Paul Bestall
