A panel discussion between sporting greats at Qatar National Library addressed ‘Football: Beyond Sports’ recently and highlighted the increasingly visible power of the politics of football.
A talk by Matthias Krug, author of Journey on a Football Carpet, traced the history of football in Qatar and the process of bidding for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. He highlighted how football wields considerable political influence today.
His talk was followed by a lively panel discussion featuring Bora Milutinovic, the only man to have coached five nations at the FIFA World Cup, which explored the role of football in politics and society.
“Coming from Spain, a football-crazy nation, we don’t really see these kinds of events happening in public spaces. Bringing in football to a public space like a library makes it very accessible to everybody. With the World Cup coming to Qatar in two years, such discussions give a chance to people to see football from another point of view,” he said.