NOURNEWS- The Football World Cup has been held once every four years for the past 9 decades, but for the first 70 years, it lacked an identity that is known today as a trademark or "brand". This means, there was no special image or slogan to represent the games of that era.
The trademark of an event draws attention to the meaning and concept behind it; It arouses excitement and creates a bond between the audience and that special event; For example, few can forget the symbol of the 1990 World Cup, which was a three-dimensional design of a soccer ball in the color of the Italian flag; Or the twisted FIFA cup as the logo of the Japan World Cup in 2002 or the colorful and exciting emoticons of the Germans in the 2006 World Cup.
Behind the colorful and even childish appearance of logos, there is an identity that is used to introduce and showcase a country, a culture or a special concept; Like the five simple colored rings for the Olympic flag.
Since the 1930s, the World Cup football matches have been associated with special images that are the symbol and sign of the host country, and current football fans, whether young or old, rich or poor, and even literate and illiterate, as soon as they see the symbol of each presented symbols, they remember its history during the World Cup.
The logos of the World Cup, in the last two or three decades, usually reflect the spirits, moods, beliefs and even dreams of the host country; This is why the World Cup has had many symbols until today; From lions, leopards and wolves to jalapeño peppers and an orange.
The symbol of the last football world cup was a lively and playful doll named "La'eeb", which was engraved in the minds of football fans as the name of the host country, Qatar. Each of the layers of this image showed a part of the culture and life of the people of this country; From his Arab and winter headgear to the wavy design that evoked the desert landscapes of Qatar.
Doha welcomed the guests of this sports event with slogans and hashtags such as "waiting for a surprise" and "a big surprise" and of course surprised everyone with its modern and luxurious infrastructure; In a month of games, "La'eeb" also welcomed the foreign guests and connected the Qatar World Cup with joy and happiness with his playfulness.
But a country that was under British protection and command until just 100 years ago and was not even allowed to show its country to non-British people, do business with non-British people, and did not even have authority over its soil and territory, so how Qatar surprised the world?
How Qatar suprised the world
To find the answer, we have to go back to 28 years ago; When Sheikh "Hamad bin Khalifa" an effective transformational leader gained power. One year after his establishment, he put down the foundation of "Al Jazeera" TV and established a media that divided the Arab world and communication between before and after it. A media that, although it is referred to as "CNN of the Arab world", found a function beyond a television and not only broke the media monopoly of Saudi Arabia, but also turned this country into a serious player in the Arab world.
The Emir of Qatar had correctly realized that for a country that lacks power-building components such as population, land size, geopolitical position, and a powerful military force, there is no other way but to use soft power components and gain power through the use of the soft power. It was in this direction that he opened the media outlet of Al-Jazeera to criticism at the cost of the dissolution of the Ministry of Intelligence under his responsibility.
His approach paid off very quickly and Al Jazeera became one of the most reliable media outlets and trusted by Arab citizens of countries such as Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, etc. and despite the efforts of some sheikhs to ban its broadcasting, Al Jazeera found its way in the Arab world.
This outlet was connected to the English-speaking world in 2006, and within a few years, "Al Jazeera" became a media that had 60 offices in 50 countries, 3000 employees from 30 nationalities, and by 2011, 220 million families in 100 countries sat down to watch it and it attracted 22 million viewers worldwide every month; That is, about 20 times the population that lived in Qatar at that time. It was on this basis that it was said that "Al Jazeera" is a big country located in a small country, named Qatar.
Many believed that after the establishment and expansion of Al-Jazeera, hosting the World Cup was Doha's second serious step in strengthening its soft power through the intelligent use of communication components that influence world public opinion.
The first step was taken by "Sheikh Hamad" and the second step was the work of his heir and son "Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad" who, contrary to the tradition of the kingdom and the way of the Arabs, at the age of 33, at the discretion of his father, instead of him, put on the mantle of the Emir of Qatar. And by holding the World Cup without any margin, he showed that he is a worthy successor for the Al-Thani family.
Accordingly, in the late hours of Sunday, December 27 last year, although Lionel Messi on behalf of the Argentina national team lifted the 2022 Gold Cup, it was Qatar that won the title of the real champion of the World Cup.
The smallest country in which the World Cup has ever been held so far was able to buy a good name, soft power and a valuable brand for itself with this sports event and provide the conditions for its hands to be raised as the main champion of this international event, and all of this happened in span of a few years after it was sanctioned and besieged by its Arab allies Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, UAE and Egypt.
Without a doubt, Doha was the winner of the World Cup, because it was able to create a platform from this sporting event, whose lasting political, religious, cultural and economic effects will surround this small country like a luminous halo for years to come by spending an astronomical figure of 220 billion dollars.
Last year, Qatar shocked the world community with its advanced stadiums, modern metro, luxurious shopping centers, recreational piers, private islands, magnificent airports, etc. The same infrastructures that in the months leading up to the World Cup were referred to as the graveyards of foreign workers!
Before hosting the World Cup, Qatar was known for two features; First, it is one of the main reserves and exporters of energy, including oil and gas, in the world; Second, the military base of the US is in West Asia. But as soon as its name was mentioned as the host of the World Cup, the arrow of human rights criticism was aimed at Doha.
The European media, especially the British media, stated that in one or two years leading to the World Cup, 6500 migrant workers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka died during the preparation of the infrastructure related to the World Cup. The numbers and the claim that was rejected by the Qataris officials and the observers, furthermore they considered these reports as part of the declaration of dissatisfaction of the former step father of this country, meaning Britain.
Of course, the conflict between Qatar and Britain did not remain only at the media level. When Qatar did not allow the English football team and other European teams to enter the 2022 World Cup stadiums which were in support of homosexuals with rainbow armbands, Britain banned any advertising related to this country in London.
In response, Doha also announced that it will transfer its investments to other British cities other than London. Considering the ten percent share of Qataris in British real estate, hotels, shops and luxury buildings, this threat was expensive for Britain and showed that Qatar is no longer on the map but also in reality has cut away its umbilical cord from this European country.
Having said this, some issues that occurred during the World Cup could have swallowed the 200-billion-dollar capital as well as the reputation and image that Qatar was looking for like a black hole. Doha, however, managed and satisfied its European and American guests with a remarkable skill and did not neglect its religious rituals, such as the distribution of the Holy Quran at the opening ceremony, the creation of a special area for the users of alcoholic beverages. Qatar made special area for use of alcohol and also call to prayer in the venues of the competitions.
Achievements of world Cup for Qatar
According to the statistics announced by the Qataris, the country has earned less than 20 billion dollars from the World Cup, which is less than ten percent of what it spent on the biggest football event in the world. But the deep smile of satisfaction on La'eeb’s lips showed that Doha has achieved what it wanted from this big investment.
Right from the moment when the whistle of the first game of the World Cup was bellowed at the "Al-Beyt" stadium, Qatar was no longer a tiny country that needs a magnifying glass to be found on the globe. A country that is the size of Tehran and Alborz provinces and in the most optimistic situation has twice the population of city of Karaj, of course 90% of them are foreign immigrants.
It was this small area and small population that during Saddam Hussein's attack on Kuwait, he implicitly warned the Al Thani family that in the event of a military attack by larger neighbors on their country, they would be caught in an unpleasant situation.
The siege of this country by the Arab coalition in recent years also showed that Doha cannot even count on the racial prejudice of the Arabs in the region. The attention of the rulers of Qatar to the new capabilities of actors in today's world for producing soft power, caused that in the one-month period of the 2022 World Cup, when the national teams of well-known and developed countries of the world were running after the ball and in pursuit of winning the cup, made Qatar to be able to stand on the platform in a new and effective framework outside the traditional political alignments in the world during the 2022 World Cup, and by spending 200 billion dollars, Qatar took the most expensive selfie with football in history.
NOURNEWS