Power of oil means Qatar can buy itself a sporting tradition

It's our insatiable thirst and reliance on oil that has put us where we are today. You can talk about alternative forms of energy all you want, the simple truth remains there is nothing oil money cannot buy, absolutely nothing.

The world of sports is hardly exempt from the fuel that drives our lives. The most notable case may be Chelsea's Russian owner Roman Abramovich, whose oil money has bought the last two championships in the English Premier League. But with the Asian Games kicking off in Qatar, oil money may be ready to fuel a sporting heist that will make Abramovich's EPL takeover look like a penny ante transaction. Qatar is playing host to a record 15,000 athletes and officials over the next two weeks and for the first time in Asian Games history, organisers are footing the majority of the bill. When you have a budget of US$2.8 billion for the games, you can do that sort of thing.

This Arabian Peninsula emirate, with an indigenous population of only 200,000, once counted on fishing and pearling as its prime source of revenue. But things changed drastically when they discovered oil reserves in the 1940s. Today Qatar is estimated to have 15 billion barrels of oil and with a barrel going for around US$63, well, you do the arithmetic. Qatar is the 11th wealthiest country in the world and is also the first Arab country to host the Asian Games. But these games are just a dress rehearsal. Qatari officials have announced they plan on bidding for the 2016 Olympic Games. With a total population of 800,000, and with expatriates outnumbering locals three to one, Qatar may seem extremely ambitious.

Other cities bidding for the 2016 Olympics include Tokyo, Madrid, Prague, Rio De Janeiro, Rome and probably a city in the United States. According to Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, secretary-general of the Qatar Olympic Committee, the Asian Games have proved to the world that a country with only 200,000 nationals can organise such a grandiose event.

Comments like this take us back to the power of oil.

The reason that 75 per cent of Qatar's population is foreign is that someone has to serve the interests of big oil money. The indigenous population may enjoy the fruits of their wealth but the labour of their wealth is almost completely outsourced and the Asian Games are no different. Organising committees and PR firms have been brought in from all over the world to run the show. Sorry to disagree with your statement there, Sheikh Saoud, but while 200,000 nationals can pay for a games of this magnitude, they cannot organise them.