Russia and Qatar sign sports 'cooperation agreement'

While Russia bombs a maternity hospital in Ukraine, Qatar welcomes their Sport Minister on a state visit.

JUST AS ONE might be thinking in relation to sport and politics that Qatar doesn't look so bad compared with Russia (and I confess I have long been a critic of Russia and the way it uses sport and sports people), they go and do this. 

Dated 10 March 2022, the article states that Qatar and Russia will sign a “cooperation agreement” off the back of a visit of the Russian Sports Minister to Qatar during which, amongst other things, he visited Qatar's anti-doping laboratory. (Try not to giggle). 

The article also states they “discussed the prospects for bilateral sports cooperation and shared experiences and best practices in the fields of physical culture and sports of both states” as well as preparations for the 2022 World Cup. That would be the same World Cup in which even FIFA and UEFA recognise it would be inappropriate for Russia to play any part. 

The article concludes with ”... agreement between the parties to complete the work on the harmonization of the inter-ministerial memorandum of Russian-Qatar cooperation in sport.”

Only little more than two months ago, Qatar's ruling Emir, Sheikh Tamin bin Hamad al-Thani, was in Washington DC meeting with US President Biden who nominated Qatar as a major non-NATO ally. 

Such status is granted by the US to non-NATO allies who have strategic working relationships with US military. The US Department of Defence indicates that 15 other nations are designated as a non-NATO ally, including Australia.

Qatar is also one of the leading suppliers of liquefied natural gas in the world and having them on side to supply Europe was seen as one of the contingency plans with the disruption caused by Russia and its actions against Ukraine. 

Around the same time as the Tamin-Biden meeting, Qatar Airways announced it would purchase $34 billion worth of aircraft from Boeing. It is a move that is straight out of the Qatar playbook. As I have written previously, Qatar Airways purchased around 80 French Airbus aircraft soon after the meeting between Sheikh Tamin, then French President Nicolas Sarkozy and then FIFA Vice-President and UEFA President, Michel Platini, at the Élysée Palace prior to the December 2010 decision. 

In the vote earlier this month in the UN, Qatar along with other Middle Eastern nations, voted with the majority to condemn Russia's actions in Ukraine.

So it begs the question just what does Qatar think they're doing by inviting the Russian Sports Minister to visit in the first place, and then proceeding with a “cooperation agreement” - a euphemism in the sporting world for favours granted, no questions asked.

At a time when maximum pressure should be applied on Russia from every conceivable angle, Qatar appears to want to have a bit each way. So instead of perhaps thinking - as I mentioned at the outset - that they're not so bad compared with Russia, they put themselves into the frame with a classic, 'look at me' gesture. 

For both nations, their actions are probably a fitting metaphor for how they conducted and won their respective World Cup bids all those years ago. 

It is also a stark reminder of the moral bankruptcy of the greedy old men of FIFA who made the decision on 2 December 2010 to award the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar respectively and whose decision, more than any other single decision, enabled both states to claim a status, prominence and credibility that neither of them deserve - then or now.

(Photo: Getty)

The former Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, and the then First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia and then Head of Russia's sovereign wealth fund, Igor Shuvalov, hold one of the five World Cup trophies as former FIFA President Sepp Blatter (R) and former Russian Sports Minister and Football Federation President, Vitaly Mutko, look on. December 2010