Today’s guest columnist is Hassan Al Thawadi, the Secretary General of the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy in Qatar.
International investment in sports is nothing new. The first foreign purchase of an English soccer club was 38 years ago. The National Basketball Association started operations in Africa 13 years ago, before launching a new league in 2020.
The notion of sports as an international exchange, a meeting place for the world’s cultures and a showcase for nations, is as old as the current version of the Olympics, dating back to 1896.
Of course, the pace and volume of change has accelerated in sports, reflecting the nature of our interwoven global economy. Technology has transformed culture and media, and the world’s center of gravity is shifting from west to east, and from north to south.
There is understandable interest in what international investment means for the sports that are beloved by so many millions of fans in the United States and across the world.
But for all the focus on what motivates investors, there is little serious focus on what they bring to the table—beyond financial resources.
Often the analysis amounts to little more than tired stereotypes. However, every American investor is not an adherent of Moneyball or a rapacious venture capitalist.
Such stereotypes are even less helpful or accurate when investors are based in the huge region known as the Middle East. We are not a monolithic region, and all investors are not identical.
My country, for instance, brings a wealth of international experience and cultural exchange to our approach to sports investment.
The FIFA World Cup in Qatar last year was a phenomenal success not because of good fortune, or financial fortune, but because of meticulous planning and flawless execution. The historic event was underpinned by the values of a nation that embraced the transformative power of sports to bring people together across the region and around the world.
The action on the field was incredible, but the true success and legacy of the tournament were the scenes we all witnessed in Souq Waqif and across the country.
Moroccans gathering en masse and mingling with Mexicans and Brazilians, Saudis and Argentines with their “Where’s Messi” jokes and songs. The Mexican fans who sat down to eat our traditional food and discovered the similarities with their own traditional dishes.
Fans from all over the world turned their flags into our traditional dress, our thobes and ghutras, contributing to a celebration of Arab culture and history.
They all celebrated the bonds that unite us as people, and that we were so proud to share with the rest of the world.
The World Cup showcased our dynamism and operational excellence, warmth and hospitality, diversity and exchange of culture.
We’re used to hosting people from all over the world in Qatar. We’re proud of what we stand for: a state that convenes peoples, that seeks to resolve conflict through dialogue.
We stand at the pivotal point between north and south, east and west, at the heart of ancient and modern trading routes. We are a region in transition, in a world in transition.
Those transitions might be challenging for some. We are shifting from an era when the global south was often viewed as a passive population, to an era in which we are increasingly active and critical participants and partners in driving economic and cultural change.
Sports represents a global language in an increasingly fractured world. At a time when nationalism threatens to divide, our approach to global sports represents an international exchange that has the power to unite, with more economic opportunity for all.
So let’s drop the stereotypes and simplistic assumptions. International investment in sports, just like other sectors and industries, has helped bring the world closer together.
We should view this convergence as an opportunity rather than a threat.
Harnessing that opportunity requires recognition of the expertise and experience that come with it. We can learn from one another even as we share the same passion for the sports we all love to support.
Al Thawadi is the Secretary General of the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy, the Qatari government entity that oversaw and delivered the 2023 FIFA World Cup, the first major global sporting event in the Arab World. He also served as chairman of the 2022 FIFA World Cup LLC, which functioned as a local organizing committee for the tournament. He was appointed in July 2020 to the board of the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), the state’s sovereign wealth fund with nearly $450B AUM, and previously served as QIA’s general counsel. He is a graduate in Law from Sheffield University and speaks four languages.