Opinion – Mathias Alencastro: Qatar follows the logic of ‘talk badly, but talk about me’

With a territory that could fit on the São Paulo-Campinas axis, Qatar went from a humble port to one of the capitals of the opulence of globalization in less than three decades due to natural resources and Kafala, the predatory work system bequeathed by British colonialism . The appetite for development has led to the formation of a modern Babylon, where 80% of the population is made up of Nepalese, Indians and many others who live as second-class citizens.

Overshadowed by neighboring Saudi Arabia and troubled by Iran and Iraq, Qatar has been obsessed with its autonomy since its independence in 1971. In the 1990s, in search of protection and its own light, the emir offered a base to the United States to conduct military operations and created the largest communications group in the Middle East. Al-Jazeera allowed its government to tell its own story about the Arab Spring years later.

Faced with the collapse of Syria and Iraq, Qatar positioned itself as a reference in the Persian Gulf along with the United Arab Emirates, with which it feeds a dynamic of harmony and competition.

In 2010, Qatar took advantage of the total commodification of FIFA under Sepp Blatter and secured an improbable World Cup organization. But the audacity left the country vulnerable. Led by Saudi Arabia, regional rivals tried to isolate the country commercially from 2017 to 2021.

In Europe, the emir’s power relations began to come under scrutiny. Le Monde newspaper revealed that Nicolas Sarkozy’s government negotiated support for Qatar’s candidacy for the purchase of 50 Airbus planes produced in Toulouse for US$ 20 billion.

To ensure the success of the Cup, Qatar invested in one of the largest political communication operations in history. An armada of marketers, consultants and communications advisors has been deployed around the world to defend Qatar’s merits. Anthropologists were hired to show the importance of football for national identity. Soccer stars such as David Beckham began to act as ambassadors. The acquisition of Paris Saint-Germain, of the Neymar brand, and, not least, of BeIN Sports, the largest sports broadcaster in the Middle East and Africa, were the most important milestones in this process.

Some issues, however, were irremediable. In the midst of an energy crisis, with Pakistan having to ration natural gas, the cooling system for the “Doctor Refreshment” stadiums is no longer seen as a technological miracle, but as a climate attack.

The images of the stadium’s stands in the opening match, Qatar vs Ecuador, filled with men left the world public embarrassed. After all, women accounted for 40% of the audience at the last World Cup, and the importance of women’s football has grown exponentially in recent years.

Deep down, all this matters little because Qatar strictly follows the logic of “talk badly, but talk about me”. The organization of the biggest event in the world is a demonstration of power that consolidates its reputation as the capital of the new Middle East. This Cup, more than the others, is above all an instrument of geopolitics.