FROM OBSCURITY TO GLOBAL SPOTLIGHT

Qatar's hosting of football's showpiece is the pinnacle of regional drive into world sports

For most of Mariam al-Anezi's life, it felt as if no one knew where Qatar was.

She would tell people she came from a place next to Dubai, the better-known Gulf Arab emirate a seven-hour drive away.

Now, as the throngs of fans from around the world descend on her country for the World Cup, she is roaming the streets of the capital, Doha, greeting strangers from India and Europe and revelling in a sense of pride in her nation's new visibility on the global stage.

"People know Doha now," alAnezi, 35, said as her children kicked balls around a seaside promenade recently.

"Those who come, they'll see it with their own eyes and they'll know how to judge with their hearts." 

Over the past decade, Qatar and its resource-rich Gulf neighbours have poured billions of dollars into international sports, buying teams and sponsorships and hosting events.

It was to bolster their global clout but also out of a desire to diversify their economies, attract tourism, further their foreign policy goals and stoke nationalism at home.

Saudi Arabia started a new golf tournament in 2022, LIV Golf, that competes with the PGA Tour. Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, hosted pre-season NBA games in October.

Ruling family members and government entities in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have all bought football teams abroad, including the Saudi sovereign wealth fund-led takeover of Newcastle United in 2021.