Background and Scope

The FIFA 2022 World Cup, being held for the first time in the Middle East will focus world attention on one of the many complex dimensions of the politics of sports in the Middle East and North Africa. Football in the region particularly lies at the intersection of nationalism, identity, and political economy: the domestic politics of ethnic and sectarian identification with particular clubs, the global phenomenon of Egyptian Mohamed Salah, the acquisition of major clubs by Gulf states, the emotions attached to national teams in international competitions, the abusive labor practices behind the rapid construction of stadiums to house the World Cup, and more.

To explore and study this complex politics of sports in the Middle East the Center for International and Regional Studies (CIRS) at Georgetown University in Qatar in collaboration with the Project on Middle East Politics (POMEPS) will be convening a two-day closed-door workshop. Timed to take place a month after the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022TM the workshop will invite scholars to share their short papers (approximately 2,500 words) covering topics that go beyond football, and will address critical issues related to youth, gender, identity, and political economy in any sport.

The workshop will be held at CIRS in Doha. Following on from the workshop the collection of short papers will be co-edited by POMEPS and CIRS and jointly published. Information regarding the workshop will be uploaded in January 2023.