THomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), canceled the trip to the final of the soccer World Cup on Sunday after a corona infection on the advice of his doctors. Bach was in Doha in the spring when an Olympic Museum opened there. And he was at the opening game.
It is possible that the Qatari World Cup hosts once again emphatically stated in November that they finally want to bring the Summer Olympics to Doha. The IOC failed two attempts by the Gulf state, for the 2016 and 2020 games, but the World Cup they won should fuel the Qatari ambitions. “We have shown our will and motivation to align it. I think it’s obvious,” said World Cup boss Hassan al-Thawadi.
Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani has also been a member of the IOC since 2002, when he was admitted at the age of 21, he was the youngest member. Behind closed doors, representatives of his government have long been openly talking about the ambition to host the 2036 Games, alone or in partnership with other states on the Arabian Peninsula. Qatar could then move the games to late autumn, like the World Cup. As a pound, the emirate could proliferate with the multi-billion-dollar World Cup infrastructure, such as the stadiums and the subway. Air-conditioned arenas, maybe even an air-conditioned marathon route – no problem for the very rich Qatar.
Indispensable player in international sport
The Emirate hosted the Handball World Championships in 2015, the Cycling World Championships in 2016, the Gymnastics World Championships in 2018 and the Athletics World Championships in 2019. Formula 1 and the professional tennis tour will also be making regular stops in Qatar in the coming years. In 2024 the swimming world championships will come to Doha. For 2030, the Asian Games have already been assigned to Doha, Qatar’s capital had already hosted them in 2006, at that time it was an early building block in the strategic development of becoming an indispensable player in international sport. Most recently, the continental mega-event was larger than the Olympic Games with around 12,000 participants in 465 disciplines.
“We were a regional powerhouse in sport and we will remain so,” said Nasser al-Khater, tournament director of the World Cup. With the efforts for the 2016 and 2020 Olympics, Qatar failed in the pre-selection. The next Olympic editions are assigned to Paris 2024, Los Angeles 2028 and Brisbane 2032. In 2036, the first Olympics in the Arab world and in an Islamic country could also advertise the emirate.
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At the World Championships in Athletics, however, images of marathon runners collapsing in the heat disturbed sports fans, and it was similar before that at the World Championships in cycling. Spectator interest was also limited, even more so than at the World Cup. Two days before kick-off, the organizers snubbed one of the top sponsors of the world association FIFA with the short-term ban on serving alcoholic beer. Qatar’s potential involvement in a corruption scandal in the European Parliament has drawn negative headlines. It is said that Qatar is said to have tried to influence political decisions there with gifts of money and goods. Parallels, for example, to the awarding of the 2019 World Championships in Athletics, come to mind.
Added to this is the debate about human rights violations and how guest workers are treated in Qatar. “There are clear criteria for the award: The UN guiding principles for business and human rights must be applied in relation to the Olympic Games in the candidate countries,” said IOC boss Bach in an interview with the “Stuttgarter Zeitung” and “Stuttgarter Nachrichten”. However, these are also part of FIFA’s human rights guidelines. In addition, the new selection process of the IOC makes the application process more opaque.
Doha is well aware of this: when Brisbane was made the “preferred candidate” for the 2032 games in February 2021 and already became the de facto host, the idea of a Qatari call for that year had to go to waste. In an application for 2036, Qatar could also meet a German candidate in addition to countries such as India, Indonesia or South Korea. The German Olympic Sports Confederation wants to use a staff unit to prepare a fundamental decision next year as to whether and when a new attempt will be started.
