Loughborough University
Browse
Brannagan_Sports_Mega-Events_Soft_Power_and_Soft_D (1).pdf (248.48 kB)

Sports mega-events, soft power and soft disempowerment: international supporters’ perspectives on Qatar’s acquisition of the 2022 FIFA World Cup finals

Download (248.48 kB)
journal contribution
posted on 2016-04-08, 13:58 authored by Paul Brannagan, Joel Rookwood
Through the use of document analysis, field work and semi-structured interviews at five major tournaments in Asia, North America, Europe and South America, the paper examines the perspectives of international football supporters on the Fédération Internationale de Football Association’s (FIFA) decision to award the 2022World Cup finals to the State of Qatar. The paper is separated into five sections. First we ground Qatar’s sporting strategy within the concept of ‘soft power’, as well as pinpoint the negative consequences that have manifest since the state’s acquisition of the 2022 finals. Second, we disclose and defend our chosen data collection strategy. Third, we uncover and discuss our results with reference to three key themes: the state’s suitability as a football destination; the dubious awarding of the 2022 World Cup; and, Qatar’s cultural backdrop and domestic policies. Fourth, we align our findings to Qatar’s foreign policy intentions and ‘soft disempowerment’ consequences, locating in the process the opportunities and challenges that accompany the state’s hosting of the 2022 finals. We conclude by reflecting upon the contribution we have made here, as well as acknowledging the importance of Qatar for current and future sports mega-event research.

History

School

  • Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences

Published in

International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics

Pages

1 - 16

Citation

BRANNAGAN, P.M. and ROOKWOOD, J., 2016. Sports mega-events, soft power and soft disempowerment: international supporters’ perspectives on Qatar’s acquisition of the 2022 FIFA World Cup finals. International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics, 8 (2), pp. 173-188.

Publisher

© Taylor & Francis

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Publisher statement

This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Publication date

2016-02-25

Notes

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics on 25 Feb 2016, available online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19406940.2016.1150868

ISSN

1940-6940

eISSN

1940-6959

Language

  • en

Usage metrics

    Loughborough Publications

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC