What after the World Cup?
This obvious question was not strongly present years before and even a few days before the final whistle of the last match.
We did not think much about Qatar's success in organizing an exceptional version of the 2022 World Cup. We knew, for example, the fate of those iconic stadiums that attracted the attention of billions and were adored by fans and losing and winning players. Stadium 974 was designed from the beginning to be completely dismantled, and it will be presented to countries whose stadiums need seats within the framework of their development.
I do not deny that strange feeling that I felt as we approached the end of the World Cup. Teams lost, then Qatar left, and most of its fans left after it, and teams won to stay until the last match, and with every wave of departures, I had a farewell chill.
As for the other stadiums, thousands of seats will be dismantled to reduce their capacity to meet the needs of sports in Qatar, and to provide part of the sports infrastructure for developing countries. In addition, some stadiums will witness additional changes. Al-Thumama Stadium is another branch of Aspetar Hospital, and in place of the upper stands a small hotel will be built, and after the capacity of the Education City stadium is reduced, it will be a sports and entertainment destination. This is how the fate of the stadiums that witnessed the most wonderful matches, the arrivals of football stars, the cheers and hopes of the fans, and if we know what These milestones, which have become part of the global sporting memory, will come to him. We are looking closely at the other World Cup gains.
Lusail Stadium in Qatar (Al Jazeera)
I do not deny that strange feeling that I felt as we approached the end of the World Cup. Teams lost, then Qatar left, and most of their fans left, and teams won to remain until the last match. With every wave of departures, I had a farewell chill.
Indeed, I became accustomed, as the Qataris and residents of the land of Qatar, to the harmony between us and the World Cup goers. During a whole month, refined psychological and cultural connections developed between everyone. The distinctive flags of the participating countries did not prevent that creative communication between everyone, and cultural differences did not prevent them from standing up. Everyone is on the ground of respect and rapprochement.
We all woke up hours after the end of the World Cup with the feeling of bidding farewell to loved ones from the vast human family, after we had an optimal experience of coexistence. The World Cup passed without the riots that we used to see in other versions of it in other countries, neither street fighting nor street fights. Harassment of women in the stands or anywhere, no obscene talk or swearing between competing fans, everything went smoothly and peacefully, like a dream.
It is not important that the organization of the World Cup in Qatar insults the statements of its opponents, but what is important is that symbolic balance of the social experience that Qatari society benefited from first and presented to the world a different picture of sport for all the people of the globe.
Children's World Cup fans near Al-Bayt stadium in Qatar (Al-Jazeera)
The feeling of safety for every fan was a motive for getting to know the richness of Qatari society and its Arab-Islamic culture. The world saw how the masses of fans interacted with the Qatari cultural signs of dress, food, dialect, customs and traditions. Indeed, I am almost certain that this psychological and intellectual experience experienced by the fans will overturn many Ideas in the future about the Middle East and about Muslim Arabs in particular, and many will wake up to the deception of the media heroes that tried to confuse the course of the World Cup, and thus the media masks fall before the facts are revealed, so the world and eyewitnesses from everywhere acknowledged the pleasure of the success of the Qatari experience in organizing the cup.
I do not conceal from anyone that I used to follow during the World Cup period the matches in the stadiums, and other matches that take place outside them between fans, Qataris and residents, whose main objective is to compete in expressing human affection and achieving cultural rapprochement as if it was the choice of peoples since ancient times, or it is a destiny in human genes, and at least it is From God's instinct, which He created His servants to get acquainted with.
Perhaps the Qatari lesson opens the door to thinking anew, especially after the people realized before the states that their gains are incalculable. We are accustomed to referring the power of the superpowers to what is military or economic, forgetting the importance they attach to soft power.
This is how we gained a societal experience that will have positive repercussions on society now and tomorrow, and will shape the formation of Qatari and Arab generations alike and give them hope and optimism for a better future. I remember Nelson Mandela saying, "Sport can achieve hope where there was only despair," and no one denies that Despair almost devoured the Arab peoples in the possibility of resuming the civilized "play" and contributing to building human civilization. This version of the World Cup has rekindled hope in the ability of the Arabs to keep up with the pattern of civilization, and I would be bolder to say that this provocative success is for all racists in the world. It enabled the Arabs and Muslims to abandon that image that covered their thinking about their role in the world, which is an orientalist image that the colonial West deliberately depicted for us and forced us to be convinced that it was "our truth", but what they were doing was miserable.
Emir of the State of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and his brother Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani (Reuters)
Brilliant sports diplomacy
We have emphasized on more than one occasion the attention of the State of Qatar to sports diplomacy for years, and we have highlighted the importance of this within the scope of traditional diplomacy and its place in cultural diplomacy in general, due to our belief that these methods have a special effectiveness in qualifying countries to play major roles in the world, and if the FIFA World Cup is The most reflective mirror of countries' experience in sports diplomacy, Qatar has scored, with its success in organizing, a goal in the range of progress.
Sport is not a marginal sector or a hostage to events. Rather, in the vision of the State of Qatar, it is an essential area of lifestyle before it is an area of influence in international relations. The safe society that the world admired is the result of that view of community sports, as sport in Qatar has become a slogan for cooperation, not a slogan. to compete.
The Arabs remained far from playing major roles in sports, so they did not have an effective sports diplomacy, in addition to the weakness of cultural diplomacy. To return the power of the superpowers to what is military or economic, forgetting the importance they attach to soft power. I still remember events in which sports diplomacy played what political diplomacy did not play in establishing peace, rapprochement between peoples, or getting out of international political crises.
In 2002, Ivory Coast plunged into a civil war, and when its team qualified for the FIFA World Cup in 2006, he took advantage of the event to launch an appeal for peace, and he appealed to team captain Didier Drogba, who was a professional player in the ranks of the London club Chelsea, that peace prevail among his people, saying, "Oh The men and women of Ivory Coast, in the north, south, center and west, we have proven today that Ivorians can coexist for a common goal, which is to qualify for the World Cup. There is no doubt that Drogba's words are not a magic wand to change the situation in a country ravaged by bloody conflicts, but they expressed the living conscience of the Ivorian people, and no one denies the impact of that appeal on achieving what African politicians failed to achieve at the time.
Didier Drogba, the player from the Ivory Coast, who played for the London club Chelsea (Al-Jazeera)
Let us reflect on the great gain achieved by the Palestinian cause again thanks to the World Cup. Sport has succeeded in reminding world opinion of the justice of the Palestinian cause as a humanitarian cause in an impressive way. Whenever sport is faithful to the principles on which it is based, it is loyal to every humanitarian cause. The raising of the Palestinian flag was before Fans of different nationalities are evidence of the presence of Palestine in the living consciences of the world. The Palestinian flag fluttered alongside other flags in a symbolic sign of human agreement that sport is not an “opium” that distracts people from human issues, and this is a deep message from the messages of the Qatar World Cup 2022.
The World Cup is not the last challenge
The Qataris viewed the World Cup as a challenge when it was announced that they won the candidacy file since 2010, as hosting the World Cup falls within the “branding” of the country and its image in the world. The wise Qatari foreign policy has played a major role in recent years in the various mediation efforts in hot and thorny political files. Such as the Sudan-Lebanon 2008 agreement, Afghanistan 2022, and Chad 2022. Its success as an international mediator has enabled it to show its image as a country that believes in international peace and urges nations to achieve it. Sport is only part of this general strategic direction of the State of Qatar.
Qatar's winning of hosting the World Cup in 2010 (Al-Jazeera)
What increased the spread of the image of Qatar without a doubt in the version of this cup is the great technological development of the means of communication, as Qatar succeeded in employing these means to provide the best image of the World Cup first and to present its culture secondly, as all traditional and new media outlets in all languages of the world reported what is happening from The episodes of the "Qatari Miracle", which were directed by the Qataris, restored confidence to the Arabs in their capabilities and capabilities, and the volunteers, who were estimated to number 20 thousand volunteers, lived it closely, and they will be ambassadors of Arab culture.
Qatar has been able to present the Arab culture in the best way by saving it from the unfair stereotypes that the West has perpetuated in its media and cinematic films. Care until it grows and develops, as it has become possible to stop this machine from producing falsehoods around our image, so that the World Cup is the real mirror through which we see our image, as we need successes and a taste for victories after centuries of civilized indolence, and all these impressive results can fade or be The "Museum of History" enters if it is not followed by efforts built on achievements. The great success witnessed by everyone, as much as it is a source of pleasure and joy, means more responsibility for the successful person to continue and invest in success.
Our country had the vision and the courage to challenge the request to host the World Cup, then it required working day and night to reach the summit of dazzling success, so we all went through a rich experience with challenges, and the State of Qatar, whose wise leadership was characterized by clarity and patience, has gained a lot of experience to realize the price of success and know the enemies of success as well, so the The march continues to maintain success and move to other stages to gain more successes, and this requires an integrated and clear-cut plan to deal with success and continue to achieve it in the coming stages.
Algerian players carry the Palestinian flag after the victory over Morocco (Reuters)