A large proportion of all three Gulf state’s populations are non-citizens – mostly migrant workers and expatriates – ranging from more than 30 per cent in Saudi Arabia to touching 90 per cent in Qatar and the UAE.

“As Gulf nations seek new foreign investment avenues [and economic diversification], investing in European soccer [and sport in general] has emerged as a strategy to accomplish this task,” said Hezha Barzani, a Middle East researcher with the Atlantic Council, a Washington-based think tank. “The investments aim to enhance ties to commercial networks in the West, as Gulf nations prepare for the post-oil world.”

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Not long afterwards, Saudi Tourism Minister Ahmed al-Khateeb said in an interview with Bloomberg that Saudi Arabia was “considering a [joint] bid with Greece and Egypt” for the 2030 Fifa World Cup – a proposition that would entail a global sports event being simultaneously staged on three continents for the first time ever.

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“Definitely the three countries would invest heavily in infrastructure and would definitely be ready,” he said last month. “And I know by then Saudi Arabia would have state of the art stadiums and fan zones built.”

But hosting major sporting events in Middle Eastern countries with little existing suitable infrastructure doesn’t come cheap.

Qatar, which rivals the United States and Australia as the world’s top exporter of liquefied natural gas, spent some US$6.5 billion on the seven new stadiums it built for the World Cup, though the final bill could come to a massive US$200 billion when all its various infrastructure development projects – many of which fall under the tiny Gulf state’s massive Qatar National Vision 2030 economic diversification programme – are totted up.

Fifa said on Sunday last week a record 2.45 million spectators attended the first 48 matches of the 2022 World Cup, filling 96 per cent of available seats in Qatar, compared to about 2.17 million fans at the opening round of matches held in Russia four years ago.

Lucrative footballing investments

These investments certainly seem to promise lucrative returns for the clubs’ new owners. From 2010-2018, the European football market grew by 65 per cent, according to figures from the Union of European Football Associations, with financial services giant KPMG reporting that the overall enterprise value of the 32 most prominent European football clubs increased by 9 per cent in 2019 alone.

The Gulf monarchies’ deep pockets have also served to secure the services of footballing legends like ex-England captain David Beckham as brand ambassador for Qatar’s World Cup, and Argentina’s Lionel Messi, who was named Saudi Arabia’s tourism ambassador in May.

Before the turn of the millennium, Gulf royalty – from the UAE in particular – were better known for throwing copious amounts of cash at powerboat and horse racing than football.

In 1986, Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum, a member of the Emirati royal family and founder of the Emirates Group, launched Victory Team. In the intervening decades, it went on to win no fewer than 15 international motorboat racing championships, all with Emiratis in the driving seat.

His nephew, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum – the UAE’s vice-president, prime minister, and ruler of Dubai – founded Godolphin Racing, which has since grown into one of the world’s most influential stables, with the city now regularly hosting three of the 10 richest races in the sport, including the US$12 million Dubai World Cup.

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Peter Hellyer, a British cultural historian and long-time UAE resident, said that Gulf Arabs’ passion for sports should not be underestimated.

“A desire for prestige and for international attention is obviously part of the process, but one shouldn’t overlook the fact that there is often a genuine interest in the sport, too – especially where sports like football are concerned,” he said.

“I don’t think the countries, and individuals, are driven to invest with thoughts of making large profits.”

Hellyer, who has lived in the UAE for more than 45 years, said “the direct, personal passion of a powerful individual” such as the al-Maktoums often drove Gulf Arabs’ interest in selected sports.

Stubborn ‘sportswashing’ claims

The staggering amount of investments that Gulf monarchies have chosen to siphon into sporting events in recent years has aroused persistent accusations that they are attempting to use the high-profile tournaments and competitions to enhance their tarnished reputations.

Since being awarded the tournament in 2010, Qatar has also taken some steps to overhaul restrictive employment practices that had long drawn criticism, such as the so-called kafala system prevalent in many Gulf states that tied workers to their employers, who used to have final say over whether employees could leave their jobs or even the country.

Qatar also adopted a minimum monthly wage of 1,000 riyals (US$272) for workers and required food and housing allowances for employees not receiving those benefits directly from their employers, while updating its worker safety rules to prevent deaths.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE followed suit with similar reforms last year.

Hellyer, the cultural historian and long-time Abu Dhabi resident, said “the criticisms of Qatar that have been made were always going to happen.”

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“Attitudes within the Gulf and the rest of the Middle East, and in Africa for that matter, are very different from those in, for example, Europe or North America,” he said.

“As more major sporting events are held in the Arab world in the future, controversial issues like these will definitely be raised again. They get a lot of media attention, but they won’t derail the events.”