Top Bins: An Exploration of Qatar’s Use of Sport and Capital to Strengthen Diplomatic Visibility

Abstract

Globalization has given new life to previously benign leisures and vices, allowing states and their respective cultural industries to export (and import) their agenda and visibility. Cultural industries have long played an important role in exercising soft power, and the advent of new communication technologies and newfound spending power amongst the world’s working class has only strengthened and opened opportunities on this front. Sports, particularly ones that translate well to global competition, have become a new frontier for states to leverage assets and wealth to construct more prominent messaging surrounding their larger diplomatic work around the globe. By examining Qatari investment in football, track & field, and other international sports — especially through vehicles like the 2022 FIFA World Cup, the Qatar Investment Authority, Aspire Academy, Paris Saint-Germain, etc. — we are offered a clear understanding as to how Qatar uses its wealth to exploit the global cultural marketplace and entrench itself as an important component of global sporting culture, and the diplomatic utility they aim to reap with such investments. Keywords: Qatar, FIFA, diplomacy, football, capital