In 2010, Qatar won the rights to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup, beating out competition from the United States, South Korea, Japan, and Australia. The news was a surprise around the world since Qatar had never played in a World Cup and certainly did not have a tested capacity to host such a large-scale sporting event. At the time, the United Arab Emirates was already more firmly on the map, not least thanks to Dubai’s attractive tourism sector. Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, maintained a conservative image and limited tourism to religious sites. Twelve years later, the Gulf states have gone through massive transformations. Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE are all making the most of the World Cup, notwithstanding recent history and their deep-rooted differences, as they try to maximize the positive impact of this megaevent on the region.

The recent Gulf crisis from 2017 to 2021, and a precursor to that conflict in 2014, highlighted disagreements among Gulf Cooperation Council countries regarding regional politics. The 2017 boycott of Qatar by Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, and Egypt included the closing of airspace and maritime borders, halting flights while sealing off Qatar’s only land crossing with Saudi Arabia. In early 2021, Gulf countries reconciled during the GCC summit in Al-Ula, Saudi Arabia. Since then, the runup to the World Cup has helped shift the focus from common disagreements to shared interests and challenges, especially regarding tourism and sports. Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE have all taken similar steps to diversify their economies beyond oil and gas, expand their tourism sectors, and boost their soft power aspirations.

The Gulf region has invested massively in sports over the past decade. Qatari and Emirati interest in international sports really took off with the purchase of European football, or soccer, clubs. The UAE took over Manchester City in 2008, and Qatar acquired Paris Saint-Germain in 2011. Recently, Saudi Arabia joined the trend when it purchased Newcastle United in 2021. While owning football clubs can contribute toward Gulf soft power aspirations abroad, bringing sports to the region is in line with Gulf countries’ interest in providing entertainment and attracting tourism as a means to boost non-oil revenue. Gulf investment in sports has also included hosting professional wrestling matches, tennis championships, golf tournaments, and international racing events.

Qatar’s small size will allow World Cup spectators to attend more than one match on the same day. It also means that accommodations will remain limited for the 1.5 million fans expected to visit the country during the monthlong tournament. This shortage of accommodations in Qatar is benefitting Gulf neighbors, especially the UAE, which has become the preferred destination for visitors looking for more affordable housing options. In anticipation of the influx of fans, Saudi Arabia has allowed World Cup ticket holder multiple-visa entry into the kingdom. Various Gulf airlines will operate more than 160 shuttle flights to connect Doha with cities in neighboring countries. Additionally, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE will all have fan zones to screen the World Cup matches. Qatar has also organized promotional tours in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, due to the large number of ticket holders from these two countries, to inform fans about activities and logistics during the World Cup.

Qatar has faced criticism regarding the treatment of women and migrant workers since it was awarded the World Cup. Neighboring countries have faced similar criticism and have taken similar steps to address these issues in the past few years. Saudi Arabia eased guardianship restrictions on women in 2019 and, in 2021, announced labor reforms aimed at improving conditions for foreign workers. The UAE also introduced extensive legal reforms pertaining to women and foreign workers in 2021. Qatar took steps to address the situation of migrant workers with labor reforms in 2020, increasing the minimum wage and allowing workers to change jobs without requiring an employer’s permission. In October, Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani said that some of the criticism targeting Qatar has been constructive and that the country has worked on addressing these issues. While Gulf countries have far to go in terms of reforms, such efforts demonstrate Gulf countries’ common interest in improving their image abroad, especially as they aim to attract foreign tourists and investments.

More recently, LGBTQ issues have become the new focus of criticism facing Qatar and its neighbors. Football players, human rights activists, and politicians alike have intensified their criticisms of Gulf states over this issue. During the Formula 1 Grand Prix in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, British seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton wore a rainbow helmet in support of the LGBTQ community. The captains of both the German and English football teams, among others, have announced that they will wear rainbow armbands for the World Cup matches. Players for the Australian football team posted a video criticizing Qatar’s stance on LGBTQ issues. Additionally, the German interior minister, Nancy Faeser, whose portfolio also includes sports, said that sporting events should not be “awarded to such states” in reference to Qatar.

Pushback on this particular issue has been significant, not least due to local backlash. This should also be seen in light of how economic and social transformation initiatives have profoundly affected Gulf societies. Gender roles and expectations have been altered while, at the same time, many Gulf citizens remain conservative to varying degrees. This has put Gulf states in a challenging position where they need to maintain and emphasize their openness to the world while also demonstrating to locals some adherence to Islamic values and traditions. As a result, Gulf states have taken a unified stance in tackling the LGBTQ issue. Both the Saudi Ministry of Commerce and Qatari Ministry of Commerce and Industry have seized a number of toys from several retail outlets for showing pride colors. The Gulf countries responded collectively to Netflix for broadcasting content they considered “contradictory to Islamic and societal values and principles.” Gulf countries have also banned the screening of Disney’s “Lightyear” due to its perceived LGBTQ content. The UAE called the film a “violation of the country’s media content standards.” The GCC also issued a statement condemning Faeser’s remarks; the German interior minister recently visited Doha and said her comments had been “misinterpreted.”

The challenges Qatar has faced during the runup to the World Cup have encouraged intra-Gulf cooperation to an extent not seen in the last decade or more. This has happened despite the recent rift and the region’s increasing competition, especially among Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. Gulf countries might have different geopolitical preferences, but the World Cup has highlighted their common interest in boosting tourism, tackling social and religious issues, and promoting their soft power aspirations. Qatar has countered the tourism-driven need to allow alcohol and Western countries’ pressure on LGBTQ themes by setting up billboards with Islamic messages in different tourist sites ahead of the World Cup. This is in line with Qatar’s attempt to uphold, at least to its local and Muslim community, the centrality of religion to its national identity.

Striking a balance between maintaining Islamic and cultural values and the many issues that come with rapidly changing Gulf societies will continue to be a challenge for the region’s social and economic transformation plans long after the World Cup final has ended in Doha in December.