The Perspectives of the European Union and Qatar on the 2022 World Cup

This study aims to investigate Qatar’s and the EU’s perspectives on the 2022 World Cup. Through a case study of the 2022 World Cup, the study evaluated the EU’s and Qatar’s views on the tournament using conceptual frameworks and the literature review approach, which involved gathering pertinent articles, political discourses, reports, books, etc. The concept of soft power has been used to analyze Qatar’s strategy. The concept of civilizing power has been applied to the EU’s perspective to examine these differing views, and it is the study’s original contribution. The study’s limitation is that it just examines the EU’s and Qatar’s discourses and actions toward the 2022 World Cup. The study has observed that Western nations, particularly those in the EU, emphasized concerns about Qatar’s democratic practices and human rights record, arguing that a country lacking these values should not host such an event. In contrast, Qatar saw the event as an opportunity to share its values and strengthen its position in the political arena.