Sports Mega-Event Hosting in Gulf States Prior to 2022: A Genealogy

The 2022 FIFA men’s World Cup drew worldwide attention to Qatar as the event was held in the Middle East for the first time. While a rich literature examines why cities and states bid for, and host, SMEs, there is comparatively little on the Gulf itself, and such studies which have been published have mostly focused on Qatar and the World Cup. However, the trend of organizing sporting events in the Gulf States long predates their growth on the international scene in the twenty-first century and extends beyond football to encompass a range of different sports. This article will adopt a comparative approach that examines how and why the Gulf States have emerged as such prolific hosts of SMEs, as well as the political, economic, and in some cases geopolitical consequences of doing so. Rather than solely focus on football, or on the biggest events such as the World Cup and the Olympic Games, the research will cover each of the six states in the Gulf Cooperation Council and encompass perspectives from a variety of sports, to properly capture the complex interplay of factors behind the desire to engage in sport, and to identify country-specific and/or regionwide patterns as well.