Sports is the Gulf's favorite soft power play. The World Cup is a hard test.
Why this matters: political developments that affect policy direction and public trust.
ATLANTA — Gulf countries have plowed billions of dollars into domestic soccer, led by a multi-year Saudi spending extravaganza that has brought global superstars and new attention to its domestic league. But it is doing little to improve their showing at the World Cup. The United Arab Emirates failed to qualify. Qatar has been on the losing end of one of the tournament’s most lopsided scorelines. Saudi Arabia now needs a win in its next match to have any chance of progressing. The results, and the performances behind them mark a disappointment for the monied Gulf petromonarchies’ hope of wielding power through sports. “The Saudis are using football to speed up soft power that would normally take decades to build: reputation, tourism, investment and global relevance,” said one business consultant who has worked with Riyadh on commercial strategy and was granted anonymity to protect relationships. Saudi Arabia’s heavy defeat to Spain on Sunday may have been the most glaring moment of all. The country began its spending extravaganza in 2022, and has brought players who left their mark in Spain’s domestic league — including Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar and Karim Benzema — but the Saudis couldn’t keep up in global competition. “When we have these stars in the Arabian League, I think that the more competitive the competition, the better our players will be. But it’s different when we’re playing for the national team because in the national team — these experiences — there needs to be a certain mentality,” Saudi team manager Georgios Donis said at a post-match press conference on Sunday, in response to a question from POLITICO. “I’m always a realist in what I see,” Donis continued, “and I believe that over time we’re going to put together an excellent, national team and we will come back to the level that we can with the opponents in the next team where we’ll be very competitive.” The 2022 host nation Qatar, which owns European champion club Paris Saint-Germain and leading gl