India may rank lowly at 104th position on the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) men’s table, dropped from 94th in 1996, but its enthusiasm over the game is probably among the highest in the world. Over 300 million Indians, numbering close to the entire population of the United States, are watching on the electronic media the ongoing FIFA World Cup games in Qatar. All FIFA World Cup 2022 matches are telecast live on Sports18 and Sports18 HD TV channels in India. Viewers are also subscribing to the channels with their respective DTH providers. The live streaming is available on the Jio Cinema app and website for free. Jio Cinema is offering live streaming of matches, highlights, and other FIFA World Cup 2022 content in five languages – English, Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam and Bengali. The FIFA World Cup is bringing huge business for these channels by way of advertising and subscription while making Qatar a household name in India.
Qatar, the world’s smallest country to host a FIFA world cup, has a land mass of only 11571 sq. km with a total population of 2.9 million of which 2.3 million are expatriates including 7.5 lakh Indians. It boasts the world’s highest per capita income of around USD 134,000. So far, Qatar is said to have spent USD 229 billion to spruce up its infrastructure, and build new stadiums, training sites, hotels, and other facilities to organise the world cup tournament. The amount is 25 percent more than the country’s GDP of approximately USD 180 billion in 2022. The investment is expected to pay handsome dividends in the coming years. Global financial analysts have estimated that Qatar’s GDP will rise by 4.1 percent by the end of 2022 itself. Globally, sports entertainment is worth nearly a trillion dollars. The countries traditionally making large investments in sports are also reaping good returns in terms of money and reputation. They include the US, China, Russia, Brazil, Argentina, Germany, the UK, Spain, Italy, Australia, the Netherlands, and France. India ranks nowhere in the league. The Government and business spending on sports development in India are practically negligible. The national sports budget for 2022-23 allocated an expenditure of only Rs. 3062.60 crore or the equivalent of around USD 380 million.
Sports is the biggest image builder of a nation. And, globally, no game is as popular as football. This explains why Qatar, the world’s richest country, decided to spend such large sums to host the FIFA World Cup 2022. After building a billion-dollar air base in the mid-1990s, which it offered to the US, Qatar’s ruling Al Thani family runs Qatar Airways, adjudged as the world’s best airline for seven years in a row, and powerful international media network, Al Jazeera. India has a lot to learn from Qatar’s hosting of the FIFA world cup as part of its global reputation-building exercise. With the size of India’s economy showing impressive growth – 40 trillion GDP by 2047 as predicted last week by Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani – the country has to work hard to enhance its global reputation by gradually becoming a sporting superpower. India will need large Government and private equity in sports to make it possible.
