Doha: The successful organisation of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 has put Qatar on the world stage and revealed its history, culture and heritage, heralding an era of openness and societal transformations.
These tangible transformations can be seen by the fantastic buildings and infrastructure, many of which are cultural and societal in nature.
Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF) and Qatar Research, Development and Innovation (QRDI) organised a Research Outcome Seminar (ROS), entitled, ‘Qatar FIFA 2022 World Cup: Economic and Social Legacies’, which presented the results of these rewarded projects and discussed their outcome.
The QNRF has funded a good number of research projects directly related to the event. Recent studies in countries that have organised World Cups in the past, show that these mega-events had societal and cultural impact that outlasted the events.
Addressing the event, Dr. Nayef Nahar Al Shamari, Director of Ibn Khaldon Center for Humanities and Social Sciences, Qatar University, shared insights on ‘The World Cup from a Social Perspective’. Regarding the World Cup, he noted that the greatest challenge was really the cultural challenge.
“We need to recognise that although the World Cup seemed to be a sporting event but it is more accurate to be classified as a cultural event and therefore, we have been asked cultural questions from beginning to the end of the event.”
“This also brings to the forefront how important it is that we have social scientists from every field whether sociologist, psychologist, specialist in education. Although Qatar has these ambitions in terms of sporting events and political mediation it is important that it is based on the solid foundation of intellectual and cultural model,” he added. Speaking about reconciling between global norms and laws and between values, Al Shamari noted that it is very important to be able to separate between values from the laws in an event such as the World Cup.
Prof. Abdelnaser Zeyad Ali Hayajneh, Associate Professor, College of Law at Qatar University gave a presentation about the legal system for building and construction contracts and discussed challenges and ambitions in light of Qatar’s organisation of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.
Speaking during the event, Dr. Khalid Saleh Al Shamari, Assistant Professor of Public Law at Qatar University discussed about the research project ‘Towards reformation of sport law in Qatar as a requirement of organising mega sports events.’
“The sports event contributed to the development of various economical, cultural, and political aspects of the country hosting its events. The importance becomes more and more significant especially in the financial returns, cultural experience, achievement and also the procedures for the host country,” he said.
“The procedures of hosting these events go through many stages which require that every country willing to host prepare for it and one of the most important elements that differentiates one country from another is having a solid legal structure that is a solid legislation that guarantees the rights of the international organisation will be protected and also the event will be held smoothly. The aim of this project is to present a proposal for sports law that will be a permanent law which will discuss the branches of law to be applied for a future event,” he added.
Al Shamari noted that from this law “we want to discuss more about all the legal actions that can be used for the mega sporting events. Our scientific approach includes statistical, inductive, comparative and analytical approach.”