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In both a recent CIRS blog post and public talk, Gijsbert Oonk discussed the ways citizenship status impacts the eligibility of players to represent states in international sports tournaments. The…

There are growing calls for a boycott of the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar. Human rights groups have long criticized Qatar for the abuse and exploitation of its migrant…

At the 2022 World Cup, Qatar may take the lead in a debate about the legitimacy of foreign-born players representing the country. In 2015, the Qatari national men’s team played…

When Qatar won the right to host the World Cup in 2010, there was little awareness—outside the Gulf and workers’ countries of origin—of the problems associated with migrant workers’ rights…

The 41st GCC Summit held in Al-Ula city in northwestern Saudi Arabia on January 5, 2021, ended the blockade on Qatar that was imposed by KSA, UAE, Bahrain, and Egypt…

The 41st summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which took place in the Saudi heritage site of Al-Ula on January 5, 2021, briefly diverted attention, especially in the US,…

Two years ahead of the first FIFA World Cup in the Muslim world the existing narratives surrounding it are far from reaching common ground, let alone converging on an optimum…

Of all the legacies one might hope for from the 2022 World Cup, one would be media liberalization in Qatar. The country has a 52-year-old media law whose potentially limitless…

Sport has become a major tool for foreign policy and an important way of developing a country’s soft power. A nation can make a statement in its international diplomacy by…

When constructing new sports stadiums, there has long been a mantra that “if you build it, they will come.” In essence, this means that crowds will instinctively be drawn to…