In the mid-19th century it passed from Ottoman rule to the influence of the British Empire. Its independence was recognized by the British only in 1971, when it took the initiative to move autonomously and not join the United Arab Emirates (UAE), such as Bahrain, Dubai and Abu Dhabi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sheikh Jassim bin Mohammed Al Thani, who ascended the throne on December 18, 1878 and until his death in 1913, prepared the future course of his country, is considered the country’s national leader. December 18th is a national holiday and that is why it was decided to be the date of the grand final of the World Cup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In modern times, Qatar’s reformer is considered to be Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, who led the country from 1995 to 2013. He staged a coup against his father, believing that he could give a new dynamic to the country. After contributing to its impressive growth, he made the decision in 2013, at the age of 61, to step down in favor of his second son Tamim bin Hamad al Thani. The latter is considered more conservative than his father but proves to be equally popular and effective. Geographically it is a peninsular extension of Saudi Arabia. Qatar’s population is estimated at 2.7 million of which only 300,000 are Qataris with the rest being workers from over 100 different countries.<\/p>\n\n\n
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Qataris are considered the richest in the world and the State covers all their needs, from their children’s school to family housing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Qatar follows Saudi Arabia’s Wahhabism, a type of orthodox, dogmatic Islam but practices it in a milder way. Women theoretically have equal rights with men and vote, but in practice need a male guardian throughout their lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al Thani, only 42 years old, has three wives and thirteen children and does not display his wives in public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The great economic power<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Qatar was a poor country that emerged as a great economic power because of oil and mainly natural gas. It ranks 14th in the world in oil deposits, accounting for 1.5% of global deposits with a production of 850,000 barrels per day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Qatar’s great advantage is the vast underwater deposits in the north of the country and in an area of \u200b\u200b6,000 square kilometers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The field area is called the North Field and borders Iran’s fields in the South Pars region. According to estimates, Qatar has the second largest natural gas reserves in the world which are predicted to last 200-300 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In recent decades, it has placed particular emphasis on exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG), and since 2006 it has been among the two largest exporters of liquefied natural gas in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the latest figures for annual exports in million metric tons, Qatar comes second with 77.4 million metric tons followed by Australia (87.6 million), the USA third (73.9 million), Malaysia fourth (31,5 million), fifth Algeria (29.3 million) and sixth Russia (28.9 million).<\/p>\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n The portfolio with major clients<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The criticism leveled at the E.U. for financial options and work rights in Qatar does not affect situations. Biggest customers for Qatari natural gas are South Korea, India, Japan and China. The Europeans are now clamoring for a share of Qatar’s natural gas to get rid of Russian gas, which they cannot get as before because of the war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n German diplomacy is actively moving to meet the needs of the German economy, but is hindered by the lack of basic infrastructure to receive liquefied natural gas. Instead, the Chinese, who have developed their cooperation with Qatar, used the World Cup to sign a giant gas supply agreement from QatarEnergy to China’s Sinopec, which reaches 4 million metric tons a year and will last for 27 years. The price of LNG is linked to the price of oil and includes transportation and delivery from Qatar to China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And on the issue of labor rights, the European criticism seems a bit high-minded since it is not directly connected to those who pay the bill. An estimated 21.8% of workers in Qatar come from India, 12.5% \u200b\u200bfrom Nepal, another 12.5% \u200b\u200bfrom Bangladesh, 9.3% from Egypt, 7.3% from the Philippines and 4.3% from Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The tens of thousands of Europeans in Qatar generally hold positions of responsibility with extremely high salaries. It is worth noting that in Qatar there are no insurance and tax deductions from employees’ wages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to NGO estimates, the extreme heat, falls from construction projects and heart attacks due to the extreme tension claimed the lives of more than 6,000 people during the preparation of infrastructure and projects for the World Cup. During peak periods more than a million workers were employed in the preparation which had a cost in the order of 200 billion dollars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 8 of them correspond to the football stadiums, 20 to the state-of-the-art Doha Airport and 45 to the development of a new state-of-the-art city that gives other possibilities to the capital region. In 2018 alone, foreign workers sent their families $11.5 billion in foreign exchange.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Working and living conditions are often very harsh. Under international pressure, Qatar made two improvements to its labor regime:<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1.<\/strong> it exempted foreign workers from the obligation to have a “guardian,” which turned them into modern-day slaves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2. <\/strong>a minimum monthly wage of $250 was established.<\/p>\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n International triumph<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Exploiting oil deposits and especially natural gas, Qatar reached an unprecedented international economic triumph. Its exports ensure an annual trade surplus that exceeds 60 billion dollars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It has the ninth largest Public Investment Fund in the world, with assets exceeding $450 billion. The Public Investment Fund is the third largest in the region after Kuwait ($737 billion) and the UAE ($697 billion). The difference is that Qatar’s wealth concerns only 300 thousand citizens, while the UAE has one million citizens, Kuwait 1.4 million and Saudi Arabia over 20 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The United Kingdom is first in Qatar’s investment preferences with more than $45 billion, followed by France and Germany with around $25 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Qatar invested in London’s Olympic Village for the 2012 games, Chelsea Barracks (the Chelsea area barracks housing development), and even the iconic Shard skyscraper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He controls 10% of the London Stock Exchange, 20% of Heathrow Airport, 20% of the airline that includes British Airways and Iberia, 12.7% of Barclays Bank, the well-known Harrods stores, he is a key also a shareholder in the Sainsbury’s supermarket chain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Qatar’s investments in Germany are mainly in Volkswagen and Porsche carmakers, Siemens, construction firm Hochtief, energy firm SolarWorld and bank Deutsche Bank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In France Qatar’s presence includes the Paris Saint-Germain football team, some of the finest hotels and properties such as the Peninsula and Hotel de La Paix in Paris and the Carlton in Cannes. Fashion houses such as Balmain, 5% of TotalEnergies, 12% of the Lagard\u00e8re group, 17% of the Accord hotel business. Qatar is one of Airbus’s best customers, although recently there has been friction between Qatar Airways and Airbus, which the American Boeing is making the most of. He also trusts the Rafale and French weapon systems in general. The presence of French construction companies was also important in the preparation of the World Cup, as for example in the construction of the Doha metro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Therefore, the European criticism comes 12 years after FIFA awarded the 2022 World Cup to Qatar and after the development of economic cooperation in all sectors has been brokered.<\/p>\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Global companies<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Qatar has developed over the last 25 years iconic companies that project their economic power and influence on a global level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the end of the last century he created the television network Al Jazeera, which means island in Arabic. The network gained international influence and played a role in various critical phases, such as after the terrorist attack of September 11, 2011 in the USA or during the so-called Arab Spring in 2011-2013.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Al Jazeera is often the target of international criticism, sometimes because it is seen as broadcasting the Taliban’s arguments and sometimes because it is seen as a destabilizing factor by regimes in Arab countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Al Jazeera was just the beginning as it has grown with AJ+, has a presence in Turkey, the UK, the Balkans and has developed dedicated channels, as has the Arabic Huffington Post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Qatar’s development is also impressive in the area of \u200b\u200bsports broadcasting, rights and subscription channels. All of this is developed under the beIN Sports umbrella. For example, it has acquired the rights to broadcast the German Bundesliga until 2025, the Spanish Liga until 2024 and the Italian Serie A until 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After securing the rights to broadcast the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, it has already secured the rights to broadcast the 2028 and 2026 Winter Olympics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another iconic company is Qatar Airways, which has a fleet of 230 state-of-the-art aircraft that in 2021 carried 18.5 million passengers and claims to have become the world’s largest airline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since 2017, it is also first in the transport of goods. In the 2021-2022 financial year, it had a turnover of $15 billion and a profit of $1.54 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Capitalizing on Qatar’s geographic position between Europe and Asia, Qatar Airways has turned Doha into a key development hub for its global strategy. It has around 50,000 employees, including 25,000 flight attendants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before the pandemic, it had 4,000 pilots of which it had to fire a thousand. But then it further increased the number of pilots, while the management of the company boasts that 9,000 pilots had submitted an application to join its force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Employees from 150 different nationalities meet on Qatar Airways planes. I have traveled with the company and have been impressed by the quality of service offered and the good coordination of the crews despite such a diverse background of the workers. The company is a symbol of successful globalization.<\/p>\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n The goal is the Olympic Games<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n FIFA’s awarding of the 2018 World Cup to Russia and 2022 to Qatar caused an international crisis and the arrest of several members of its administration at the initiative of the US authorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n FIFA president Sepp Blatter was subsequently forced to resign having played a leading role in FIFA’s development over decades. Corruption in FIFA is facilitated by the fact that all football associations have one vote. It is therefore observed the phenomenon of football federations of small countries, especially of Central America and the Caribbean, negotiating their vote on the global football stock market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Every relevant decision by FIFA is accompanied by allegations of corruption and a picture of a wild backstory. Much the same was heard when Mandela himself successfully lobbied for the World Cup to be held in South Africa and when the Sheikh of Qatar and his associates successfully lobbied for the 2022 World Cup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Qatar, however, has greater ambitions in the field of sports. He is bidding for the 2036 Olympic Games. He put a lot of pressure on the head of the International Olympic Committee Germany Thomas Bach to support his request. Bach eventually kept his distance because the Olympics should be held not in August – as tradition wants – but in December, as Qatar’s climate dictates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is thought that if Bach is not re-elected in 2025 to the presidency of the International Olympic Committee, the Qataris will come back harder to convince his successor. For now, the emirate has already secured the 2030 Asian Games, while FIFA president Gianni Infantino, who lives with his family in Doha, is believed to be influenced by the Qatari sheikh and his associates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Qataris’ flexibility is impressive as they have worked closely with President Sarkozy and Michel Platini in their bid to secure the 2022 World Cup. Platini, seen as a surefire successor to Blatter, impressively vacated himself – with the help of the appropriate revelations – in favor of Gianni Infantino but he too has emerged as a factor influenced by Doha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So there is a lot behind the Football Cup being held in Qatar. A very small country was able to exploit its natural wealth in an exemplary way, overcoming the limitations of an anachronistic form of political and social organization and enormous international political risks. For now, enjoy the football. The rest – complex and in some cases unpleasant – were and will remain with us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Qatar is an extremely interesting case indicative of the possibilities and contradictions of the modern world. The FIFA World Cup being held in Qatar…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[823,390],"tags":[3893,148,3894],"class_list":["post-11189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-middle-east","category-politics","tag-fifa","tag-qatar","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11189"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11198,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11189\/revisions\/11198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/image-356.png\")
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