Hello, my name is Craig LaMay. I'm an associate professor at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, where I teach communications law. And I also teach in Northwestern's campus in Doha, Qatar, where I teach both law and a course called Sports, Media and Identity. And that sports course is not a marketing course per se, but the heart of the thing is a marketing idea. Qatari's decision to use sport as part of its nation branding. And that's my subject in this short talk with Qatari's efforts to promote itself, which has not gone entirely as it had hoped. And the arrival of a new and somewhat unexpected player in the Gulf sports scene Saudi Arabia. Qatar only became an independent country in 1970, and almost people know about it is that it will host the 2022 World Cup. The world's biggest media event and second largest sporting event after the summer Olympics. Almost five billion people watched some part of the Russian World Cup just completed. So if you want to get people to pay attention to you, a sporting event might be a good investment. Might be. Economists will tell you that sport mega events are terrible economic investments. That they cost more than they can ever return and that the money for them is much better spent elsewhere. In fact, countries that get to vote on whether to host these things almost always reject them. But in Qatar's case, that's not the issue. Qatar is an absolute monarchy. It's a wealthy but developing country in the Arabian Gulf, which the investment in sports is intended to pay off an international standing of prestige. They've been doing this a long time. They're not new to it. In 2006, Qatar hosted the Asian Games, one of the largest sporting events. A year from now, in September 2019, Qatar will host the World Athletic Championships, which is the major track and field competition in the run-up to Tokyo 2020. And every year, Qatar hosts literally dozens of international and regional sporting events from squash to handball, bicycling to tennis. Qatar is also home to BN, the world's premier sport broadcasters, which has rights to among many other things. The major football competitions in France, Spain, and the United Kingdom. I live in Doha, and one of the things I like about BN is it has rights to NBA basketball throughout the Middle East and North Africa region. All of this flies under the name of what political scientists call soft power. And that term was coined by the scholar Joseph Nye, but it means using persuasion instead of coercion, or hard power, to get what you want. And sports diplomacy is an example of soft power, and it's not just Qatar that does it. It's a major reason China hosted the 2008 summer games and will host the 2022 winter games. It's why Russia hosted the winter games in 2014, and just hosted the world cup this summer. It's why Brazil hosted the 2014 cup and the 2016 Olympics. You get the idea. Sport diplomacy is about winning international approval and standing. It's literally nation branding. And so it's a mix of both marketing and politics, which is what makes it so interesting to me. And one reason Qatar is doing sports diplomacy is that it wants to challenge the dominant narrative in world sport that sport is a western thing. If you've ever taken a sports history class, the basic story you get is that the British invented sports and took them around the world. And then the Americans figured out how to turn them into a business. That's an overstatement of course, but not a wild one. And in any case, that narrative doesn't feel right if you were once the subject in a colonial empire, as Qatar was. So too as United Arab Emirates, both are Trucial states along with Bahrain, one of the last outposts of British Empire. All of these states are engaged in sport diplomacy, and all of them have a way above their weight given their tiny populations. For all of them, sport is an opportunity to present a non-western version of what sport looks like. And also to challenge stereotypes and discourse about Muslims societies generally. If you look at the kind of sporting events that they have brought in. A quick list, both Bahrain and Abu Dhabi are hosts on the Formula One circuit. Dubai is home to the world cup of horse racing, which began in 1996, and is either the first or second largest purse in the world. Dubai is also home to the Omega Desert Classic, which is the first European golf tour event to be held in the Middle East. Dubai is home to the Emirate Rugby Sevens, which put that sport on the map is now the second most important competition after the Olympics. Dubai and Doha both host legs of the World Powerboat Championship. And as I told you a moment ago, Doha hosted the Asian Games in 2006, which brought competitors from 45 countries, 1.5 billion television viewers to the games. What's new, really new is the role to be played in Gulf sports by Saudi Arabia. Which in the last several months has come out of nowhere to challenge Qatar's leading role in Gulf Cooperation Council of sports diplomacy. With 32 million people, Saudi Arabia is by far the largest of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries. And has long been a sleeping giant of Gulf sports, kind of a mystery to people who study the region. But it's part of the reason for its failure to compete. And substantially, in sports, it's been owed to it's very tightly controlled entertainment sector. In the last year however, the country has made several significant moves to liberalize that sector, such as opening movie theaters. And many of those things clearly directed at its overwhelmingly young population. 45% of Saudis under the age of 25. Why Saudi Arabia is doing this is anyone's guess, but there are two incontrovertible facts we're thinking about. One of them is that about two years ago now, Saudi Arabia saw the ascent of a new ruler, 33-year-old crown prince Muhammad bin Salman, who has pledged to modernize the country. And the second is that, also about a year ago in June 2017, Saudi Arabia along with United Arab Emirates imposed an air, sea and land blockade on Qatar. Accusing it of sponsoring terrorism and demanding among 12 other things that it close Al Jazeera, the news network. Whatever the reasons Saudi Arabia has completely changed its sports diplomacy efforts since last fall. It's invested in Formula E auto racing, hosted the Race of Champions motor sports series. They agreed to host the Drone Racing League World Championship in fall of 2018. Its brought the European golf tour to the country. It's announced an annual horse race with a $17 million purse, the third largest in the world. It signed a ten-year deal with World Wrestling Entertainment, the WWE, to host several live events over the next decade. And it's contracted with Spain's La Liga and the English Premier League's Manchester United Football Clubs to develop the country's football industry. Finally in May, 2018, the Saudis emerge as one of the principals in a group that included investors from Japan, China and the United States. It has urged FIFA to enlarge its current biannual club World Cup and offered to host the tournament. Prosa debut in 2021, although the major European football leagues have opposed this idea. More ominously since fall of 2017, Saudi Arabia has also been host to a massive pirating operation. Which the Riyadh-based satellite broadcaster Arab Sat has decrypted the signal of BN, the Qatar-based satellite sports broadcaster. And resold it as BeoutQ, providing both the coded boxes and subscriptions. Qatar's been unable to take legal action against BeoutQ in Saudi Arabia, whose media ministry has characterized Qatar's charges of piracy as a, quote, malicious lie, unquote. And Qatar has instead urged FIFA to take action as an injured rights holder, which FIFA finally did in July 2018 while World Cup play was ongoing. By that time other rights holders contracted with BN including European Football, UEFA, Formula 1, La Liga. Most of professional tennis including Wimbledon and the United States Lawn Tennis Association. And BN partners Telemundo, and NBC Universal that also complained about the piracy. Both the Saudi government and Arab Sat have throughout denied any responsibility for BeoutQ, which as I speak to you continues to operate. But the Qatar blockade has also include an ongoing public relations campaign waged in the British and American media by Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, replete with influence vying by all sides. And regular broadsides against Qatar's moral worthiness as an international sport host. The latest skirmish erupted less than two weeks after the official handover of the World Cup from Russian President, Vladimir Putin to the Qatari Amir Shiekh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani. Which happened right after the Cup was done on July 16th. And then almost immediately after the Sunday Times of London reported that new documentation has emerged. Showing that Qatar had engaged in a, quote, black ops, unquote campaign to destroy the 2022 bids of the United States and Australia. And suggesting that Qatar could be, not for the first time suggesting this, could be stripped of the tournament. The report was quickly picked up by other British papers and the BBC. Then almost immediately, English Football Association chairman, David Triesman proposed that the 2022 tournament be transferred to England, which they did unsuccessfully for the games. So there you have it. I'm not a marketing guy, but I do know that sports diplomacy, that nation branding is a form of soft power, is also a form of marketing. It's also evidently a risky one. I'm sure as the political and economic situation in the Gulf develops, as the 2022 World Cup draws near. Students of sport diplomacy will have a lot to learn from Qatar and its neighbors. Thank you, if this interests you, feel free to contact me. You can find my information on the Medill School of Journalism webpage, at both the Evanston campus and the Doha campus. Thanks, bye.
