2024-01-11 16:39:04
Just over a year after hosting the World Cup, Qatar is set to once again host one of football’s biggest competitions, the Asian Nations Cup. The small Gulf country will launch the competition against Lebanon on January 12 at the Lusail stadium, near Doha, where Lionel Messi led Argentina to victory in December 2022.
Qatar hopes retain your title acquired in 2019 against Japan, the United Arab Emirates. The last five years have been eventful, turbulent and therefore uncertain: the China should have hosted the eventbut a combination of political and health reasons (its “zero Covid” policy) reduces the country’s ambitions Who finally gave up in 2022 to host the tournament.
When it won the right to host the Asian Cup in 2019, China aspired to become one of the world’s leading football nations. But those dreams have been thwarted by underperforming players, meddling politicians and the apparent caution of Chinese officials.
Qatar once again at the center of attention
The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) therefore reopened applications and rescheduled the competition for 2024, a fortuitous opportunity for Qatar. Having spent 240 billion dollars to host the World Cup, the country will be able to reuse its new infrastructure and demonstrate that the organization of a tournament can have positive impacts. Regionally, this is all the more important since, since 2019, neighboring Saudi Arabia has become a serious rival for plans to host sporting events you Qatar.
Nevertheless, Qatar once again finds itself at the center of attention, a position that the country’s government wishes to perpetuate. During the 2022 World Cup, he established himself as a reliable hostcapable of organizing successful events, as a focal point to communicate a vision of Arab unity and to demonstrate that it is a legitimate and trustworthy member of the international community. This year, officials in Doha will no doubt seek the same goal, especially given the recent turmoil in the Middle East.
Ilus/Wikimedia, CC BY-SA
In recent years, the Qatar engaged in diplomacy between the United States and the Taliban government in Afghanistan, organized a hostage exchange between Iran and the United States and was instrumental in negotiating the release of Palestinian and Israeli hostages. During the Asian Cup, Qatari officials will have to fully deploy their “soft power” (soft power) and their diplomacy, particularly due to the identity of several teams qualified for the tournament.
Football and politics mix
Current events in the Middle East have led to the death of several football players and the war posed problems for the Palestinian selection to prepare for the tournament. For its first match, the team will face Iran, country accused by Israel, the United States and their allies of being at the origin of Hamas attacks in Palestine and of supporting Hezbollah in Lebanon. The latter will also participate in the tournament, in the same group as Qatar and China, at a time of growing tensions, as evidenced by the recent terrorist explosion in Tehran.
During the 2022 World Cup, Iran had attracted the wrath of the whole world, because at the time, women across the country were being arrested and beaten for refusing to cover their heads in public. This question could resurface once again, although the appearance of the UAE in the same group as Iran and the Palestinian selection suggests that bigger questions could be raised – ideally football and politics should not not mix, but this is very often the case.
Throughout the recent conflict in the Middle East, Etihad Airways of Abu Dhabi has been one of the few international airlines to continue serving Tel Aviv. This follows the normalization of relations with Israel in 2020, a process which subsequently gave rise to several agreements in the field of football. But Qatar, host country of the tournament, has always refused to follow suit, while Saudi Arabia is returned to its desire for normalization following Israel’s military action in Gaza.
A special edition
With this year’s Asian Cup taking place against a backdrop of conflict and uncertainty, Saudi Arabia goes into it trying to forge a more progressive and responsible international reputation. This has never been more evident than through its recent sports investments, particularly in football. Five years ago, the kingdom came second in its group and exited the competition in the round of 16, a disappointing performance compared to that of its smaller neighbors, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (who reached the semi-finals ).
This time, Saudi Arabia, which heavily invested in acquiring foreign players for its national championship, hopes to play better, even win the tournament, and project an image of the country that attracts attention in a positive rather than negative way. The Asian Cup will not be a litmus test for Saudi Arabia’s return on investment in football, but the team’s performance in the tournament will provide an indication of how football is faring in the kingdom.
When it comes to soft power and attractiveness, the Gulf countries will find themselves up against some of the best in this area, including Japan and South Korea. Both will be taking part in the tournament and have a well-established reputation for wowing audiences around the world, including Japanese fans who clean the stadiums after their passage or the South Korean Son Heung-min, real ambassador of the “Hallyu wave”which designates the country’s soft power policy.
Added to this mix of tensions, attraction and intrigue are Australia and Syria, which clash, even if their relationships off the field remain strained (the first having bombed the second over the last decade). Indonesia will also be present, a country which aspired to host the World Cup but who would have withdrawn to allow Saudi Arabia to become the favorite for the organization of the 2034 tournament. There is also India, a traditionally underperforming nation in the field of football but which gradually awakens to the economic and political advantages of this sport.
Unlike previous editions, the 2024 Asian Cup is of particular importance. Some regions of the continent are rife with conflict, while others are emerging as world powers. This illustrates how the world pivots from North to South. At the same time, the tournament reminds us that this pivot does not necessarily happen smoothly, especially in these difficult times.
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