News Desk
DOHA: After the World Cup earned Qatar both applause and censure, Qatar began lobbying to host the 2036 Olympics and a place as a pillar of world sport. Qatar must have some sigh of relief while getting the space for the 2025 world table tennis championships and the opening race of the world endurance championship in 2024.
Meanwhile, Formula One returns in 2023, while the energy-rich Gulf state also stepped in when China withdrew from holding the 2023 Asian Cup football and is to host the world swimming championships in 2024.
Qatar is cultivating ahead with its sporting ambitions despite receiving criticism, particularly regarding the treatment of foreign labor involved in the construction of the stadiums to influence the economy of one of the world’s richest countries. FIFA president Gianni Infantino repeatedly said that Qatar was hosting the “best ever” World Cup, and other organizations, federations, and media outlets also welcomed Qatar’s largesse.
An official of International Table Tennis Federation told the media that Qatar stepped in to help organize events when Covid devastated the calendar, with proper facilities. Meanwhile, Qatar won a vast majority in most of the ITTF votes against Spain for the 2025 championships.
Olympic in Qatar after FIFA World Cup
The 2036 Olympics will be awarded after 2025, and the emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, is an IOC member, while Qatar has already bid 2016, 2020, and, 2032 Games.
According to Jean-Loup Chapelet, an Olympic movement specialist at the University of Lausanne chan, changing the opening match’s date months ahead of the World Cup and banning beer around stadiums may go against Qatar in the Olympic bid.
Marketing expert Payne also said Qatar and FIFA had scored their own goals, but this will be forgotten quickly as the IOC has an open policy of rotating the Games, and the Olympics have never been held in the Middle East.
Successfully hosting FIFA World Cup
But the sweltering summer temperatures of up to 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit) mean the IOC would have to shift the Games to the winter season. Qatar could face tough competition from Saudi Arabia and Turkey, which has previously bid five times.
Saudi Arabia was part of a Gulf blockade of Qatar from 2017 to 2021. However, ties have since been restored as Qatar has highlighted the Arab fervour shown at the World Cup to claim its success, where Saudi Arabia pulled off a shocking win over Argentina, and Morocco reached the final fours.
“It remains to see how long the Arab unity and revival of the FIFA World Cup 2022 will last,” said Danyel Reiche, an associate professor at Georgetown University in Qatar who is heading a World Cup project. Reiche added that sports should become a tool for peace-building.
Reiche further added that Qatar and Saudi Arabia should initiate a shared Olympic bid, copying the co-hosting of the next World Cup in the United States, Mexico, and Canada, and others big action.
“Co-hosting sporting events with other Middle East states would add to Qatar’s image of being a good global national that has, for example, mediated in major conflicts,” said Reiche.
