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EDITORIAL. The FIFA World Cup in Qatar has highlighted the metamorphosis of this insolently growing region. But the area is not without risks.
By Nicolas Baverez
Published on
– Modified
L’organization of the World Cup by Qatar, which has invested more than 200 billion dollars in the event, against 11 billion for Russia, in 2018, and 15 for Brazil, in 2014, crowns the influence strategy of the emirate. Based on the Vision 2030 plan, which puts gas revenues at the service of economic diversification and investment in the European economy and sport, via the country’s sovereign wealth fund, it has made it possible to overcome both the blockade place by its Gulf neighbors, from 2017 to 2021, than the Covid-19 epidemic.
Qatar has focused criticism since the awarding of the World Cup in 2010 to a country of 11,600 square kilometers, largely deserted, with no football tradition or experience of planetary competitions. They mixed…
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