Gulf Goals: Qatar Has High Hopes for 2022 World Cup

Shortly before the delegation from football's international governing body FIFA left Doha on Sept. 16, it was invited to a presentation in a pavilion. The cool, windowless room, furnished with cube-shaped leather armchairs and with lounge music playing on the sound system, could just as easily have been in Madrid or New York.

Atkon, a Berlin-based event planning firm, had spent months working on the 39-minute show that was now unfolding in front of the FIFA experts, complete with 3D technology and surround sound. Laughing children and wise sheikhs swirled across the screens, stadiums grew and the camera zoomed in to show images from the past and the future. There was even a daring simulation of an imaginary WM opening match, in which Qatar beats Germany 2:0. In one scene, Deutsche Bahn CEO Rüdiger Grube appeared on a yellow cloud and said, in somewhat broken English, that he was keeping his fingers crossed for Qatar.

It was all so convincing, attractive and real. When French football legend Zinédine Zidane appeared in the corner of the room after the presentation, the FIFA team thought he was a hologram at first.

The booming emirates on the Gulf are known for their elaborate 3-D presentations. Their rulers are crazy about the technology. And they have the money to turn simulations into reality.

As of Dec. 2, it is now clear that in 12 years' time, the soccer World Cup will take place in the desert nation of Qatar, a country that has never participated in a World Cup. The German tabloid Bild called it a "Qatarstrophe" while the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet described FIFA's decision as "the biggest football joke of all time." It was a scandal for everyone who sees football as a game for Europe and its former colonies.

Football, it seems, is leaving home.

Not Just Dominos

"So what?" says Uli Stielike. "It's time we realized that they don't just play dominos in the Orient." Stielike, a former footballer who played on the German national side that were runners-up in the 1982 World Cup, is sitting with his wife in a Starbucks café in the City Center Mall in Doha.

He is the latest former German national player to have found work in Qatar recently. Famous German footballers Stefan Effenberg and Mario Basler played briefly in Qatar, collected a million or two, then left again. Stielike has been a coach in Qatar for the last two years. He currently trains the Al-Sailiya team and plans to renew his contract.

His team usually plays for a crowd of about 300 fans. Going to football matches hasn't quite caught on among Qataris, who prefer to watch games on television, he says. "But that will change completely when there's a World Cup involved," says Stielike. "Nowhere are there so many sporting facilities per capita than in Qatar. The rulers here are the biggest fans. They all play football themselves."

Qatar lies in the heart of geopolitical darkness, located at almost exactly the intersection of imaginary lines extending from Afghanistan to Sudan, and from Iran to Yemen. FIFA may have had its own, obscure reasons for choosing Qatar. There are also good reasons to stage something other than a clash of civilizations in this afflicted part of the world for a change. "There is one thing people haven't understood," says Stielike. "The World Cup wasn't awarded to Qatar, but to an entire region."

More precisely, he is referring to the Tropic of Cancer, the zone circling the globe that extends from Mexico through Mauretania to Taiwan, a region that is home to many of the migrant workers who spend every day creating wealth in the Gulf. The Gulf's population of 146 million people includes at least 17 million foreigners from every country imaginable. If we include Jordan, Syria and Egypt, societies that are no less enthusiastic about soccer, there are 260 million people living in relative proximity to Qatar.

The Gulf Overtakes the West

The Gulf, one of the world's most globalized regions, is home to Indian investment bankers, British port logistics experts and German petroleum geologists, Iranian exiles, refugees from Sudan and Yemen, fortune seekers from Birmingham and entire clans from South India, Afghanistan, Syria and Egypt. It ought to be enough to fill the stadiums.

"In a very short amount of time, the Persian Gulf has become a collector of civilizations without parallel," the German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk concluded during a visit to the region. The West has lost its monopoly on art collections like those of the Louvre and the Guggenheim. And since the decision by Zürich-based FIFA, it has also forfeited its monopoly on its holy of holies, the World Cup. The tournament is going where everything goes, it is following the money and following in the footsteps of the Formula 1 circus, cycling, tennis and golf.

Place and event have become disconnected. Anything can take place anywhere, provided there is enough money and the airports have been expanded as needed. The International Monetary Fund has predicted 16 percent growth for the Qatari economy in 2010. No economy in the world is growing at a faster pace.