Qatar 2022 World Cup – Marketing Strategies & Managing Negative Press

This year’s FIFA World Cup in Qatar will look a lot different to the last one in Russia, as most fans will be swapping the normality of watching their countries in beer gardens with barbeques and sunshine to watching inside with hot chocolate, tinsel, and Christmas trees.

A big question surrounding this year’s World Cup is how many countries and their star players will react by having their seasons disrupted midway through and having to shift their attention from club football to international tournament football. However, this is the normality for African countries during the African Cup of Nations usually beginning in January – so will certain African teams gain an advantage from this?

However, the main headlines and controversy surrounding the tournament are not about how England, France or Brazil will fare, but more so about how Qatar managed to secure their bid to host this World Cup. It is widely accepted that this process was not 100% fair and legitimate, as ex-FIFA President Sepp Blatter has gone on record to state how giving Qatar the world cup was a mistake and insisted on how there were no under-the-table dealings stating, ‘you cannot buy a world cup’. But he received an eight-year ban from football and resigned from his post, as did Michael Platini who has been stated received a lot of pressure and an alleged ‘disloyal payment; to sway the vote one way.

This is just the start, as this is the first time that Qatar has ever ‘qualified’ for the World Cup, there is an obvious lack of footballing infrastructure within the country, especially that to host a world cup. So, this has meant since they secured the rights to host the tournament, they have had to build this infrastructure, and at least 6500 workers have died during this process, and if that is not staggering enough, to put this into perspective, if there was a minute silence for each of the workers who had died, all 64 matches of the tournament would be played in silence.

Human rights issues are also rife within the country. Coupled with the fact that homosexuality is illegal, will countries begin to boycott the world cup, or will money talk and sports washing carry on?

As much as campaigners in Germany, Denmark and Norway have been pressuring their respective countries to boycott the World Cup, Germany, and Denmark (who have qualified) will take part and take an anti-political standpoint and claim that they are there for purely the football, but does that not go completely against how players and teams rightly campaign against racism and homophobia in football, especially given the state of Qatar.

Essentially the world cup sells itself, as over half of the world’s population viewed at least one of the 2018 World Cup matches on TV, away from home or on digital platforms – a sensational 3.572 billion people. The final was seen live by a combined 1.12 billion viewers worldwide. So sadly, most people will ignore these issues when the tournament begins and tune in to support their country in hopefully winning the tournament, creating history for the country.

2022 will be the first time the World Cup has been held in the Middle East, with the only other time the tournament has been held in Asia being in 2002 when Japan and South Korea co-hosted. This will undoubtedly bring new eyes to the sport and help decrease the difference in revenues in club football from just Europe, as no club from outside Europe is ranked in the top 30 revenue generators in global football.

FIFA could get around the alleged bribes and under the table dealings and conversations by saying that they want to expand and help distribute the revenue of club football globally, to help develop the sport. This could eventually tie into the proposed Super League back in 2021, making the tournament global, and creating one of the world’s largest cash cows.

Surprisingly, the Qatar World Cup has not branched out into creating its own NFTs, which would be a great revenue generator for them, this is somewhat proven as a simple google search will display how much demand there is for them, as there are many fakes and imitators online for world cup NFTs.

External marketers will be licking their lips at the prospect of Qatar 2022, especially given the fact that it is being held in Winter. Companies can have an impact in Q4, Christmas markets to be exploited, and brands certainly upping their marketing costs after two years of COVID disruption, meaning that this has the potential to be one of the most profitable tournaments ever.

One thing that will be a struggle for Qatar, is getting people from Europe and the Americas to travel to support their country, due to differences in culture, expensive pricing, and negative connotations of the country and tournament. FIFA are aiding them in this by creating competitions to win tickets by email and offering tailored hospitality packages that cover all parts of the fan's journey, which will be extremely helpful.

The big questions yet to be answered of how teams and countries will deal with the ongoing controversy, and we will have to wait until the 18th of December to make an honest evaluation of the success of the tournament both on and off the pitch.

Will you be tuning in or are you too perturbed by the controversy?