Doha — Fifa president Gianni Infantino’s plan to expand the Qatar World Cup to 48 teams and increase the number of host countries risks worsening existing Gulf diplomatic tensions, analysts claim.
“There is a very real risk that expanding the World Cup to include Kuwait and Oman would make these two countries vulnerable to the same sort of regional pressure Qatar has faced since 2017,” said Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, a research fellow at Rice University. “Particularly since Kuwait and Oman also have followed their own approaches to regional affairs.”It could also foster resentment in those countries missing out on games, notably Saudi Arabia and the UAE, Ulrichsen said.
Saudi Arabia and its allies, which include Egypt, accuse Qatar of promoting terrorism and being too close to Riyadh’s great political and religious rival, Tehran. Andreas Krieg of King’s College London, who has worked as an adviser to the Qatari government, said Kuwait and Oman “both have issues with Saudi and the UAE”.
“The Gulf dispute as it exists would be further exacerbated by having a World Cup over three countries,” said Krieg. The results of a much-vaunted Fifa “feasibility study”, announced at a meeting of football’s governing body last week in Miami, backed expansion in Qatar.
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