Abstract
Sports in the Middle East have become a major issue in global affairs: Qatar's successful bid for the FIFA World Cup 2022 (won in a final vote against the United States), the 2005 UEFA Champions League Final in Turkey's most populous city Istanbul, the European basketball championship EuroBasket in 2017 in Israel, and other major sporting events, such as the annually staged Formula 1 races in Bahrain and Abu Dhabi, have put an international spotlight on the region. In particular, media around the world are discussing the question of whether the most prestigious sporting events should be staged in a predominantly authoritarian, socially conservative, and politically contentious part of the world.1 The influence of sports in the Middle East extends beyond the region: professional sports clubs around the world have signed sponsorship deals with Middle Eastern airlines, and stadium-naming rights have also been signed with those companies. Major football clubs like Paris Saint-Germain Football Club and Manchester City have been bought by investors from the Gulf-Qatar and Abu Dhabi, respectively.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Sport, Politics and Society in the Middle East |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press |
| Pages | 1-10 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9780190099558 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9780190065218 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Feb 20 2020 |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- General Social Sciences