Decades pass by, and football maintains its position as the most popular sport in the world, capable of mobilizing millions of people and evoking various emotions in its players and fans. With such mobilizing power, it is not uncommon to find the use of football as a tool for political propaganda by governments and for projecting a certain image of the country internationally, anywhere in the world.
In Brazil, for example, the dictatorial government of Emilio Medici extensively used the victory in the 1970 World Cup as a political propaganda instrument for the military dictatorship. The image that remains in history could not be more symbolic: Carlos Alberto, the captain of the 1970 victory and scorer of one of the most beautiful goals in World Cup history in the final against Italy, lifted the trophy alongside Medici for millions of Brazilians.
The importance given to football by Emilio Medici is related to internal and external factors. Internally, football could be used as a tool to identify the population with the imaginary of a patriotic Brazil that the dictatorship sought to promote, as well as reinforcing the idea of a false “normalcy” in a scenario marked by the extreme use of force by the government against its opponents. Externally, Brazil’s power in football was an easily marketable image to the world. The country had just become the first three-time world champion and was ready to be known as the “country of football.”
Obviously, the use of tools like football for political purposes is not exclusive to centralizing and dictatorial governments. However, it is interesting to note how, over the years, the methods of governments characterized by centralized power have changed and become more sophisticated. Consequently, there are also noticeable modifications in how these governments utilize certain tools for the international projection of the country’s image. Despite this, the objectives remain reasonably similar to those of the Medici era: cultivating patriotic imagination, reinforcing the idea of normalcy internally, and projecting a forged image of the country to the world through perceived soft means.
The three most recent examples of this change in the method of using football for the international projection of a country’s image are Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Russia. Russia was responsible for hosting the 2018 World Cup. At the time of its realization, the Russia World Cup was the most expensive in history, costing the Russian government over $14.2 billion. Such expenditure on hosting a global event was seen by the Russian government as a great symbol of Russia’s resurgence on the world stage. Internally, an event with the purpose of celebrating and promoting “unity among peoples” was just another measure to silence and conceal recent attacks on democracy, human rights, and freedom of expression by the Putin government.
The sophistication and mobilization of substantial resources over the years serve the objective of selling a certain image of the country to the world. As Putin himself reveals in his welcome video to football lovers, the World Cup was an opportunity to “learn about Russian identity and culture, its unique and diverse nature, its hospitality, and its friendly and sincere people.”
If Russia primarily relied on a grand global event, Qatar went further. The country, with no football tradition, practically turned football into a state policy in recent decades. In addition to hosting the 2022 World Cup, which cost an incredible $220 billion (breaking the previous spending record set by the Russia World Cup nearly 19 times), the Qatari government founded Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) in 2005, one of the arms of the Qatar Investment Authority, aiming to make investments in sports in Qatar and around the world.
Qatar Sports Investments has made significant investments throughout its existence. The most relevant case is that of the French football club Paris Saint-German (PSG). QSI bought the club in 2011 and since then has poured exorbitant amounts of money into it year after year, especially through advertising deals.
The use of advertising agreements by PSG and the Qatari government was a sophisticated tool to circumvent the financial rules of spending limitations (Financial Fair Play) of the French and European football leagues. In 2012, a year after QSI’s acquisition of the club, the Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA) – the Qatari government institution responsible for promoting the country’s tourism – announced a €150 million advertising contract with the Parisian team. Advertising transfer values could still reach €200 million depending on the club’s performance in certain indicators. At the time, the club’s advertising contract surprised the world and established itself as the largest sponsorship in the history of football.
In addition to the QTA sponsorship, during the period after the club’s acquisition by QSI, PSG was also sponsored by the French hotel chain Accor, of which QTA owned a 10% stake in the Accor Group, and by Qatar Airways, an airline founded by the Qatari government in 1993.
With the massive injections of resources made year after year through advertising contracts, PSG was quickly raised to a prominent position in the world football scene. Qatar’s money and future prospects for the project resulted in an absolute domination of the club in the French league, the team’s first appearance in the most important club championship in the world (Champions League) and the easy attraction of world stars such as Kylian Mbappé (one of the biggest promises in football for the coming years), Lionel Messi (the greatest winner of best player awards in the world) and Neymar Jr. (the most expensive player in the history of football).
The consolidation of Qatar’s projection on the world stage through football was realized with the hosting of the 2022 World Cup. In Qatar’s plans, the ideal would be, in addition to an event of monumental proportions, that at least one of the three PSG stars (Mbappé, Messi, or Neymar) would feature with their national team in the World Cup final. The result could not have been better for the Qatari government: the Qatar World Cup final, besides having probably been one of the greatest World Cup finals in history, brought Mbappé and Messi face to face. On one side, Mbappé and the French team reached the final to achieve a feat that only Brazil and Italy have accomplished in history, winning two consecutive World Cups. On the other hand, Messi sought to make Argentina world champion again after 36 years and end the recent dominance of European national teams in the World Cup.
Definitely, the 2022 Qatar World Cup final could not have been better for the Qatari government. Two of its three stars performed incredibly and were the protagonists of their teams. In the end, Messi became world champion for the first time and raised the World Cup wearing a Bisth, a special outfit reserved for special occasions by the Qataris.
Another country that has gradually adopted football as a powerful propaganda weapon is Saudi Arabia. Like Qatar, the Arabs aim to bring the 2030 World Cup to their territory, in a partnership that could involve Egypt and Greece. In addition, the Arabs have adopted a very bold investment policy in the world’s largest national football league, the Premier League.
As an example, in October 2021, the consortium led by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia disbursed 300 million pounds (2.2 billion reais at that time’s exchange rate) for the purchase of the English club Newcastle. Thus, just like its neighbor Qatar, Saudi Arabia invests in football through one of the government-controlled funds, since the country’s Public Investment Fund is chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
In addition to the purchase of a very traditional team in the world’s largest club football league, the Saudi Arabian government has invested in strengthening its local league through the acquisition of major football stars. The most impactful case is that of Portuguese player Cristiano Ronaldo. Earlier this year, the player signed a contract with the Saudi club Al-Nassr and began earning an annual salary of 200 million euros (R$ 1.1 billion), becoming the highest-paid football player in history.
In media terms, Cristiano Ronaldo’s signing produced immediate effects. For example, Al-Nassr’s Instagram profile had 800,000 followers until the day the star’s signing was announced. A week after the announcement, the page was already followed by more than 9 million users. The media impact generated by Cristiano Ronaldo has extended to the image of Saudi Arabia as a whole.
Not content with making the most expensive contract in football history with Cristiano Ronaldo, the Saudi government has a 30 million euro per year agreement with Lionel Messi for the Argentine to serve as the country’s tourism ambassador. In addition, since April of this year, the Saudi football club Al-Hilal has proposed a contract offer for the Argentine star worth 400 million euros per year. In other words, Saudi Arabia wants to have the two greatest players of the 21st century as brand ambassadors for the country.
Thus, judging by the high values recently invested by these countries in the purchase of football clubs, the hiring of major stars, and the hosting of World Cups, it is possible to understand how football has been instrumentalized to clean up the image of countries widely known for their low levels of democracy, respect for human rights and individual and collective freedoms.
Unlike the forms of football exploitation carried out by governments such as Emílio Médici’s in the last century, there are new methods of using football to promote the image of countries on the international scene, which require more resources and have more lasting effects through the association of major brands (clubs and players) with the respective country that makes the investment.
Despite the change in the way football is used to promote the country’s image, the objectives remain reasonably similar over the years: to cultivate patriotic imagination, reinforce the idea of normality internally, and project a forged image of the country to the world through means seen as mild.
Sources consulted:
https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-58842557
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-44812175
https://sportinsider.com.br/arabia-saudita-copa-do-mundo-2030/
https://veja.abril.com.br/esporte/o-campeao-do-mundo-antecipado-o-dinheiro-do-catar/
https://www.sportsmole.co.uk/football/psg/news/psg-announce-big-money-qatar-tourism-deal_60334.html
