Qatar’s World Cup Is a Win for Globalization
If you want to understand the forces behind global integration, the top event of the world’s most globalized sport is a good place to start.
Globalization at work.
Photographer: Catherine Ivill/Getty Images EuropeNever mind the invisible hand. Over the coming weeks the world will be united by the visible boot. Billions of people will watch the World Cup in Qatar (in 2018, some 3.5 billion people, more than half the world’s adults, watched a portion of the tournament, and more than a billion watched some part of the final). And rivers of money will be spent to persuade those fans to consume various brands of fizzy drinks and glutinous burgers in the name of athletic prowess.
No other sport comes close to soccer in its global reach. US football failed dismally in its attempt to cross the Atlantic. US baseball only extends to bits of Latin America and pockets of Asia. Cricket is confined to the old British Empire. Golf is global but niche. Soccer is watched everywhere you can get a TV signal and played wherever you can purchase a round ball. Even Osama bin Laden, an Arsenal fan, encouraged his troops to play soccer when they were holed up in Afghanistan.