By Carlos Santamaria
Alumnus, American Public University
The recent transfer of Brazilian soccer star Neymar from Spain’s FC Barcelona team to French team Paris St. Germain (PSG) for a record $262 million has shocked both soccer fans and analysts alike. If we add Neymar’s salary and signing bonus, the entire cost of the deal will be worth over $600 million.
Spending $600 million on a single player is well beyond the financial ability of most soccer teams in Europe, but not that of PSG’s oil-rich sugar daddy, the emirate of Qatar. However, this deal is not just about soccer.
Qatar Sports Investments Wants to Promote the Emirate
PSG is owned by Qatar Sports Investments (QSI), a private holding company wholly owned by the Qatari government, which also controls the BeIN Media Group, the sports division of the Al-Jazeera TV network. QSI seeks to promote Qatar through investments in sports, mainly soccer.
QSI has done remarkably well in recent years. In December 2010, Qatar was chosen by FIFA, the world soccer governing body, to host the 2022 World Cup, beating the United States’ bid in the final selection round. That same year, QSI signed a $177 million agreement to become the official sponsor of FC Barcelona, then the undisputed best team in the world. In 2011, QSI purchased debt-ridden PSG for only $59 million.
It was Qatar’s heyday on the international soccer scene. Qatar became the first Arab nation selected to host the world’s top soccer event; the first to get its name on Barcelona’s jerseys, which until then were free of advertising; and the first to purchase a European team with a chance of winning the coveted Champions League title.
These huge investments allowed this tiny Middle East country to make a name for itself among soccer-crazy Arabs. But beyond the Middle East, Qatar was out of its league, as it was years earlier when it briefly turned Al-Jazeera into a global media phenomenon. But those glory days were short-lived.
Bribery and Slave Labor Claims Involve Qatar in Controversy
The 2022 World Cup soon became mired in controversy over allegations of bribery, a cloud that has yet to dissipate after FIFA whitewashed its own probe into the allegations in 2015. Moreover, Amnesty International in 2014 reported that thousands of foreign guest workers hired to build the new soccer stadiums in the Qatari capital of Doha were treated like slave labor.
Qatar Isolated from Its Middle East Neighbors
Now the country’s hosting of the 2022 World Cup is in peril again. This time, the issue stems from Qatar’s recent diplomatic isolation by four Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries that have accused Qatar of supporting terrorism and political opposition groups in other Gulf countries.
Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in June 2017 cut off all ties to Qatar, including travel and trade. Saudi Arabia has sealed Qatar’s only land border. That has forced Qatar to import crucial food and other supplies by air or sea from Iran and Turkey, two of Doha’s last remaining allies in the region. Although Qatar has immense oil and gas wealth, its solution to circumvent the blockade is economically unsustainable in the long term.
Should the diplomatic crisis continue, the 2022 World Cup tournament will almost surely be boycotted by Arab countries, led by Saudi Arabia.
Teams traveling to Qatar will have to avoid transiting through other GCC countries. In addition, Qatar will have to give assurances that it will not run out of food when it hosts 32 national teams and hundreds of thousands of fans from around the world.
Finishing the stadiums on time will be difficult enough without Qatar’s ability to import enough steel. Even keeping the power on could become a problem despite Qatar’s massive gas reserves.
With the 2022 World Cup more than five years away, there is more than enough time for Qatar to mend ties with its neighbors. The problem is that Doha so far seems to have no intention of backing down and accepting a long list of demands by GCC countries to defuse the crisis. GCC demands include handing over all suspected terrorists, severing all ties with extremist organizations, closing Turkey’s military base and Al-Jazeera, and downgrading relations with Iran.
Neymar’s Acquisition Is a Geopolitical Power Play by Qatar
PSG’s sudden decision to snatch Neymar from FC Barcelona is no coincidence amid the Gulf diplomatic crisis. Barcelona fans might believe the transfer is an act of revenge for the Spanish club abruptly dropping QSI as a sponsor in favor of Japanese online store Rakuten, but there is more beneath the surface.
Buying one of the world’s best soccer players for more than double the previous world-record transfer fee can be interpreted as a geopolitical power play by Qatar to counter its isolation. It sends a clear message that the emirate will not allow itself to be bullied by the GCC.
Consequences Could Follow Qatar’s Anti-Bullying Stance
The consequences, though, could be dire for Qatar if its bold move backfires.
First, the Union of European Football Associations, UEFA, will surely investigate PSG to ensure that the Parisian team has not violated financial fair play rules. If PSG is found guilty, Paris St. Germain will face a multi-year suspension from the Champions League, which QSI dreams Neymar will help PSG win.
Also, UEFA can go further. It may question where BeIN Media got the money to pay for the TV rights to the Champions League itself.
This questioning may seem far-fetched, but the vast amount of money spent and how the transfer was carried out has irked European soccer officials. These officials are becoming increasingly concerned about a foreign government hijacking its flagship competition for political reasons.
Second, FIFA could consider the risk of a disruption to the 2022 World Cup too great and strip Qatar of the privilege of hosting the tournament, although this is unlikely – at least for now. “Qatar is not in danger of losing hosting rights to the 2022 World Cup over the ongoing Gulf crisis,” the head of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, said in June.
Qatar’s Loss of the World Cup Would Be a US Gain
If Qatar did lose the World Cup, the event would then go to the runner-up in the 2010 voting, the United States. So far, Washington has not taken sides in the Gulf diplomatic crisis. But the United States would definitely benefit from Qatar’s loss because hosting the 2022 World Cup would be a major sports and political coup.
On the one hand, Qatar could technically react to a UEFA threat by suspending natural gas shipments to European countries. However, that would deprive the Qatari emirate of the hard currency it desperately needs to counter the GCC travel and trade ban.
On the other hand, confronting the United States is potentially suicidal. Qatar is a longtime U.S. military ally in the Middle East and hosts CENTCOM’s forward headquarters.
As U.S. involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq declines, however, the U.S. might one day have no need for a full-time military presence in Qatar. The time frame for such a move coincides with the 2022 World Cup.
Qatar could thus find itself not just without the soccer tournament it fought so hard — and paid so much — to host, but without its gas markets in Europe. Qatar would also be without the billions of dollars the U.S. pays to keep a military presence in the emirate.
Six hundred million dollars is a steep price to pay for Neymar. However, that amount pales in comparison to what Qatar stands to lose if it attracts more enemies beyond its hostile Gulf neighbors.
About the Author
Carlos Santamaria is a 2017 alumnus of American Public University. He holds a master’s with honors in international relations and conflict resolution from APU and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the Complutense University in Madrid, Spain. He is currently an editorial and communications international consultant for the Asian Development Bank in Manila, Philippines.