Qatar FIFA World Cup 2022

GUQ Professor Danyel Reiche talked to Farkhunda Muhtaj, captain of the Afghanistan women’s national football team and professional player with the Dutch team Fortuna Sittard, and Dr. Arni Thor Arnthorsson, Vice President of Student and Institutional Advancement at the American University of Afghanistan and a former football player. They discussed how Qatar helped prior to the FIFA World Cup 2022 football players and students from Afghanistan.

Dr. Arni Thor Arnthorsson is the Vice President of Student and Institutional Affairs at the American University of Afghanistan. He holds a Ph.D. in Business Administration with specialization in Marketing from the University of South Carolina where he was a varsity soccer player from 1984-1987. Arnthorsson was born and raised in Iceland where he played in the top football league at an early age. He has experience as a coach as well. Arnthorsson has spent most of his career in Academia, and has lived in many countries in the world. Currently he lives in Madrid, Spain where he works remotely for his university. Arnthorsson has been in charge of relocation efforts of students and staff of AUAF in the last year. Recently 78 students have arrived in Qatar to be a part of Education City life as students at AUAF through his efforts.

Farkhunda Muhtaj is an Afghan-Canadian professional footballer and social activist. She is the Captain of the Afghanistan Women’s National Team and plays for Fortuna Sittard in the Dutch Eredevisie. Muhtaj earned two degrees from York University; a BSc degree in Kinesiology and Health Sciences (2019) and a B.Ed degree in Science and Physical Education (2021). She captained York University’s Women’s Soccer Team and later joined the York Lions as an Assistant coach after spending 5 seasons as a player. She has won many academic and athletic accolades each year. Most recently Muhtaj was recognized as a Top 30 York Alumni Under 30 for her active dedication toward social justice. In 2021, she played an instrumental role in the evacuation of 300 + Afghans including the Afghanistan Youth National Team to Portugal after the Taliban came into power in August. Muhtaj is committed to developing and implementing sustainable humanitarian and sport projects locally and globally to help advance equitable and diverse opportunities for refugees and newcomers, women and girls, and underserved communities to feel empowered and become impactful leaders. She is heavily involved in many sport and social justice related initiatives including:

The co-founder and director of Scarborough Simbas, a non-profit organization that uses sport to help ease the settlement journey of refugees and newcomers to Canada. Director of Conscience and Culture at the Respect Group Inc Humanitarian ambassador for Penny Appeal Canada. Where she helps spread awareness on humanitarian issues globally. Active member of Common Goal’s Anti-racism project, a reputable organization committed to tackling social challenges through football and serves on the board of Common Goal’s Quality Seal Committee.

Georgetown University Professor Danyel Reiche talked to Jack Thomas Taylor, Associate Curator and Manager of Exhibition Planning at The Media Majlis, a university museum located at Northwestern Qatar, about the current exhibition in the museum, titled “Is it a Beautiful Game?”, and how it relates to the FIFA World Cup 2022.

Jack Thomas Taylor is the associate curator and manager of exhibition planning at The Media Majlis at Northwestern University and the curator of Is it a beautiful game? Taylor is a doctoral student at King's College London, researching culture, media, and the creative industries. He holds two master's degrees, one in Culture, Criticism and Curation from Central Saint Martins at the University of Arts London with a thesis observing the values that pertain to Universal Expositions (World Expos) and his second, an MBA in Culture and Enterprise, jointly awarded by Birkbeck Business School and his alma mater Central Saint Martins, with a dissertation with distinction questioning if business strategy tools can be used in the arts and culture domain.

Taylor curated the inaugural exhibition at The Media Majlis Arab identities, images in film (2019) and has since gone on to curate Breaking News? how the smartphone changed journalism (2020), and Is it a beautiful game? (2022) at The Media Majlis. Other curatorial work includes Mind the Gap at Tashkeel (Dubai, 2017), Heritage: A User’s Manual at the Southbank Centre Archive Studio (London, 2016) and Inert Matter, Then Live Wire held at Central Saint Martins (London, 2016). Since 2009, he has held various positions in the arts, culture and creative domains in Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Dubai, and Qatar across exhibitions, branding, visual arts, programming, and publishing.

Taylor has wide-ranging experience in creative services, including with BOND Creative Agency as studio manager, strategist and producer (Abu Dhabi office) and as an independent cultural and creative strategist with TAYLOR Strategy and Design Advisory. Publishing work includes Brownbook (Dubai) and Arabian Magazines (Bahrain), as well as founding Alef Magazine in Qatar in 2013.

GU-Q Professor Danyel Reiche speaks to Lolwa Husain Al-Marri, President of the Qatar Women’s Sports Committee (QWSC), about women’s sport in Qatar, and the progress that has been made in this domain since Qatar has been awarded the FIFA World Cup 2022.

GU-Q professor Danyel Reiche speaks to Abdullah Al-Arian, an Associate Professor of History at Georgetown University in Qatar and editor of CIRS's recently released book “Football in the Middle East,” about the main findings of the publication.

Abdullah Al-Arian is an associate professor of History at Georgetown University in Qatar. He received his doctorate in History from Georgetown University, where he wrote his dissertation on the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt during the decade of the 1970s. He received his Master’s degree in Sociology of Religion from the London School of Economics and his BA in Political Science from Duke University. He is editor of the "Critical Currents in Islam" page on the Jadaliyya e-zine. He is also a frequent contributor to the Al-Jazeera English network and website. His first book, entitled Answering the Call: Popular Islamic Activism in Sadat's Egypt was published by Oxford University Press in 2014. Professor Al-Arian teaches introductory courses on the history of the Middle East, as well as advanced topics courses covering the history of modern Egypt, Islamic social movements, and the history of US policy towards the Middle East.

GUQ Professor Danyel Reiche speaks to Abdulla Al Mulla, director of the 3-2-1 Qatar Olympics and Sports Museum, and Andy Pearce, curator of the football exhibition that will be shown during the FIFA World Cup 2022.

Abdulla Y. Al Mulla comes to the 3-2-1 Qatar Olympic and Sports Museum with more than 35 years of professional experience with international and local organisations in sports, protocol, event management, media and public relations, human resources and administration. As an expert on international protocol and media, Mr Al Mulla has advised sports organisations around the globe. In addition to his role at 3-2-1, he is also Media & Broadcasting Director for the Asian Athletic Amateur Federation, the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) Protocol Chief, Protocol Director for the Olympic Council of Asia and a Board Member of the International Table Tennis Federation. He has worked with the United Nations under the leadership of the secretary of the United Nations, Dr Antonio Costa, as a peacemaker on various collateral diplomatic relationships.

Andy Pearce has over 35 years experience in the museums and heritage sector. He began as an educationalist developing and delivering museum learning programmes for many different age ranges and abilities, using many different collections, from art to industrial archaeology. After successfully completing a course of professional development aimed at emerging new leaders in the late 1990s, he moved into senior museum management, including both Director and Project Director roles.

Dr. Talar Sahsuvaroglu, Sustainability and Environmental Expert at the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, speaks to GUQ Professor Danyel Reiche about the sustainability concept of the FIFA World Cup 2022 and its green legacy for the State of Qatar.

Dr. Talar Sahsuvaroglu is a Sustainability and Environment Expert with the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy. Her expertise lies in environmental management, air quality, climate change and waste management, working previously as a consultant for the World Bank, governments and privately-funded projects. Since starting her role in 2013, she has been managing the sustainability and environmental requirements of the stadiums being designed, constructed and operations for the 2022 FIFA World CupTM, as well as being part of the team responsible for developing, preparing and implementing the joint Sustainability Strategy to meet the mission and vision of the Tournament. Now the focus on her work is on the operational requirements of the Host Country.

Sports and football in particular have been viewed as male-dominated fields. Professor Danyel Reiche has a conversation with Nicky Crosby, a lead sports presenter at beIN, regarding the challenges of being a woman sports presenter in the Arab World and discusses how the awarding of the World Cup has changed beIN. 

For the past decade, Nicky Crosby has worked as the lead female presenter for beIN Sports' English Channel, hosting the Premier League and FA Cup live studio coverage. Life with beIN has enabled her to travel the world reporting on major sporting events such as the Olympic Games, World Cup Finals, European Championship, and Grand Slam Finals where she has been lucky enough to sit down with some of the biggest names in Sports. In addition to her work for beIN’s Sports department, she is often called upon to conduct interviews for beIN’s entertainment sector. Before her time at beIN, she spent 5 invaluable years in London learning the trade as an Assistant Producer/Reporter for IMG and Pitch International and spent time as an intern at Sky Sports for three years prior to that. She received a first-class honors degree in film and television production from York St John University. Her approach is to consistently deliver programs in an upbeat, fresh, and relaxed style, with the viewers' enjoyment and experience at the forefront of her work

Prior to the FIFA World Cup 2022, Qatar Foundation launched several projects to use sports as a catalyst for social change. In this episode, GUQ Professor Danyel Reiche spoke to Alexandra Chalat, Director of Community Engagement at Qatar Foundation and a legacy strategist, about Qatar Foundation’s World Cup program and examples of impactful QF projects.

Chalat leads on projects that will use the World Cup as a platform to enable disruptive education, sustainability, innovation and social progress, aiming to achieve the Qatar National Vision 2030 and contribute to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. This includes addressing issues such as women and girls’ empowerment through football and coaching training; developing volunteer programs; activating QF’s dynamic campus, Education City, through socially progressive and sustainable events; and developing the strategy legacy plan for Education City Stadium.

Volunteering has become common at mega sporting events. For example, there were 15,000 volunteers at the FIFA World Cup 2014 in Brazil and 17,000 in 2018 in Russia. At the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, around 20,000 volunteers will be expected to serve. We discussed the topic of volunteering at the FIFA World Cup 2022 with Nasser Al Mogaiseeb, Volunteer Strategy Manager at the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy, and Tania Haddad from the American University of Beirut, an Assistant Professor for Nonprofit Management and a leading scholar on volunteering in the Arab World.

Nasser Al Mogaiseeb is the Volunteer Strategy Manager at the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy in Qatar. He is the Founding member of different voluntary and community initiatives, including the Youth Advisory Committee of the Ministry of Culture and Sport in Qatar.

Tania Haddad is an Assistant Professor of Public Administration and Nonprofit Management at the Department of Political Studies and Public Administration at the American University of Beirut(AUB). Her research focuses on the fields of civil society, nonprofit management, nonprofit education, volunteering, disaster management, and e-government. Her research has appeared in many academic journals, including the International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, Democracy and Security, and The Journal of Nonprofit Education and Leadership. She was a Member of the Expert Group responsible for “Reimagining volunteerism for the 2030 Agenda” and collaborated with the International Association for Volunteer Efforts (IAVE) on their assessment of corporate volunteering in the Arab Nations region.

Joachim Krug, coach to Qatari athletes since 1982, spoke to Professor Danyel Reiche, Georgetown University in Qatar, about how the FIFA World Cup 2022 has changed Qatar’s sporting landscape.

Joachim Krug is an experienced athletics and sports professional who has worked with the Qatar Athletics Federation and national team for the past four decades and 6 Olympic Games. He holds a degree in Physical Education from the University of Cologne in Germany and has helped to advise and shape sports policy and procedures at competitive levels across local, regional, and international sporting competitions, helping Qatar to develop male and female sports and athletics since his arrival to Doha in 1982.

GUQ Professor Danyel Reiche spoke to Simon Kuper, Financial Times columnist and bestselling author, about Kuper's new book "The Barcelona Complex," as well as the links between Qatar and FC Barcelona, and how Lionel Messi’s recent transfer from FC Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain can be related to the Qatar FIFA World Cup 2022.

Simon Kuper(born in Kampala, Uganda in 1969) was educated at Oxford University and Harvard. He writes a weekly column for the Financial Times. He is British but lives with his wife and three children in Paris. His books include "Soccer Against the Enemy" (1994), "Ajax, The Dutch, The War: Football in Europe During the Second World War" (2003), and Soccernomics (co-authored with Stefan Szymanski, 2009). Kuper’s biography of the British-KGB double agent George Blake, "Spies, Lies, and Exile," was published by the New Press in May 2021. His book "The Barcelona Complex," about FC Barcelona, appears in August 2021 with Penguin Press.

In this episode, BeIn Sports presenter Richard Keys talks about his career in sports broadcasting and the Qatar World Cup 2022.

Richard Keys has been one of the most established TV sports presenters in the UK with a continuous presence of more than 40 years. He has worked for the BBC, ITV, CHANNEL 4, SKY Sports, talk SPORT, beIN Sports, FOX SPORTS, ESPN STAR SPORTS and has presented well over 4,500 matches. Currently, he is based in Doha working for beIN Sports, presenting among others the popular Keys and Gray show. He shares his personal views on current sports news on his blog.

Read more about the CIRS project on "Building a Legacy: Qatar FIFA World Cup 2022": https://bit.ly/CIRS2022

Dr. Amal Mohammed Al-Malki, Founding Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Hamad bin Khalifa University, spoke with Danyel Reiche, Visting Associate Professor at GUQ.

In previous podcasts, guests discussed issues related to Qatari female athletes. In today’s episode, our scope goes beyond sport and we examine the progress women have made in Qatar prior to the FIFA World Cup 2022 and which challenges remain.

Dr. Amal Mohammed Al-Malki is the Founding Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Hamad bin Khalifa University, Qatar Foundation. Prior to that, she was the Executive Director of the Translation and Interpreting Institute, which she founded in 2011. She also was an Associate Professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar where she taught courses in writing composition, postcolonial literature, theories of translation and Islamic feminism. Dr. Al-Malki holds a PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of London-SOAS, where she also earned a Master Degree in English-Arabic Applied Linguistics and Translation.

Professor Valter Di Salvo, Director of Football Performance and Science at Aspire Academy, spoke to Professor Danyel Reiche about the development of football talent in Qatar.

Valter Di Salvo, PhD, is Director of Football Performance & Science with the Qatar Football Association and ASPIRE Academy and, since 2002, a full Professor at University of Rome “Foro Italico”. Since 2016 he has been appointed Head of the Performance and Research for the Italian Football Association.

Faras Ghani is a Digital Editor at Al Jazeera English and a multimedia journalist focusing on human rights, migration, and the sociopolitical impact of sports on society. He is author of the book Champions, Again (Liberty Books, 2009). He spoke to GUQ Professor Danyel Reiche about Al Jazeera’s reporting of the FIFA World Cup 2022. Al Jazeera is the largest news network in the Middle East and based in Qatar’s capital Doha.

This episode is about how women in Qatar are increasingly entering sports that were male-dominated in the past. It features football coach Hajar Saleh and basketball referee Amal Mohammed.

Hajar Saleh has been a national football team player since she was 11 years old, and has C and D licenses in coaching. She is an ambassador for Qatar's delivery amazing. In addition, she is a divemaster in scuba diving, a free diver, a hiker and climber, and has a boat license. She believes that sports bring people together and always build strong communities.

Amal Mohammed is a graduate student in the Masters of Sport and Entertainment Management program at Hamad Bin Khalifa University. She graduated from Qatar University with a Bachelor of Science in Sport Science in 2017 and also has an Associate of Science in Nursing. Amal is a FIBA (Federation of International Basketball) licensed referee and has played for the National Basketball team in Qatar.

Professor Danyel Reiche spoke to Houtan Homayounpour, head of the International Labor Organization Project Office for the State of Qatar, about the recent labor market reforms in the country and the role the ILO played in this process.

In February 2018, Mr. Homayounpour was appointed as the Head of the ILO project Office for the State of Qatar. In this capacity, he oversees the implementation of a comprehensive 3 year program on labour rights, and acts as the Focal Point of the ILO Regional Office for Arab States. Previously, he was based at the ILO Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland providing daily support to field colleagues on development cooperation projects combatting forced labour and human trafficking, and was the focal point for private sector engagement, as well as donor relations for the ILO's Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work Branch (FUNDAMENTALS). He was also a member and the 2013 chair of the UN Inter-Agency Coordination Group against Trafficking in Persons (ICAT). Previous to joining the ILO, he worked at the Canadian Ministry of Health in Ottawa. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce (BComm) with a concentration in Marketing & International Management from the University of Ottawa, as well as a Master of Science (MSc) with a specialization in International Negotiation from Groupe École Supérieure de Commerce de Rennes.

This podcast is dedicated to the experiences of Qatari women footballers who love playing the game and work hard to establish it in the country. Professor Danyel Reiche interviews four young women, featuring Haya AlKaabi, Maryam Alsaiqal, Haya Abdulrahman, Dana Darwish, all of them current or former students at Georgetown University in Qatar.  

Anne Sobel is a writer and producer who delights in telling stories about women where they don’t belong. Her graphic novel series, Isra’ & the Black Moon Pearl, is a superhero saga steeped in the untold history of women in the Arabian Gulf. Anne is the Producer of Represent, a feature-length documentary about three first-time female political candidates taking on entrenched political systems in the American midwest. Co-produced by Kartemquin Films, Represent has been acquired by Independent Lens on PBS for an October 2020 premiere. Anne is the Associate Producer of The Workers Cup, an Emmy-nominated feature-length documentary that premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. Anne is also an educator who was a film professor at Northwestern University in Qatar from 2010-2016.

Adam Sobel is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker and writer who has worked extensively in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, as well as in Chicago, which now serves as his home base. Adam is the director of The Workers Cup, Mediadante's feature-length documentary about a football tournament for migrant workers building the 2022 World Cup infrastructure in Qatar. The film premiered on Opening Night of the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, has been distributed on TV and theatrically in more than 40 countries, and has been nominated for a News & Documentary Emmy Award as well as a Critics Choice award. Recently, Adam has directed and produced documentaries with the Chicago Cubs, including an interactive documentary about baseball’s most beloved losers, and multiple short-form series. His work with the Cubs has been nominated for the Clio and Webby awards. Adam lived in Qatar for 5 years, creating news, documentary, and fiction that appeared on PBS, BBC, ITN, CNN, The Guardian, and HBO. In 2014, he directed On the Top, a documentary series that followed the first man from Qatar and the first woman from Saudi Arabia to climb Mt. Everest. The series won a CINE Golden Eagle for Outstanding International Documentary Series. Along with Anne Sobel, his wife and writing partner, Adam has co-written Isra’ & the Black Moon Pearl, a graphic novel series about a 15-year old Khaleeji girl destined to save womankind from an evil fortune teller.

Ahmed Hashim is a football writer based in Doha. Originally from India but born and raised in Qatar, he started out writing on Arab and Asian football as a student. Since then, his words have appeared on the AFC's official website and magazine. Currently, Ahmed develops content for clients in the Qatari football industry. He is also the co-founder and editor of QFootLive, a digital media initiative to cover and promote Qatari football in English.

Nasser Al Khori is leading the local and international programmes division of Generation Amazing, which is a legacy programme of the SC. Al Khori comes with extensive experience of working in Qatar’s not-for-profit industry. He was previously leading the Doha Debates team and also served as the head of Qatar Foundation’s Partnership and Strategic Initiatives. He has also worked with Qatar Foundation International and the United Nations. At Generation Amazing his role is to devise strategies and oversee the implementation of using football for development initiatives across the target countries. Al Khori comes with strong intercultural communication and analytical skills. He is currently pursuing his Master in Business Administration from University College London and holds a Bachelor in Science Degree from Carnegie Mellon University.

David Harding is International Editor for The Independent, based in London. Between 2015 and 2019, he was the AFP bureau chief in Doha. He has been a journalist for 20 years.

Ahmed Khellil Abbassi is the Executive Director of Competitions & Football Development with the Qatar Stars League. He has worked as the Sporting Director for Al Duhail SC (2011–14), the National Team Camps and Competitions Director for the QFA (2014–15), and the Director of National Teams for the QFA (2015–20), winning several awards and trophies, such as the AFC Asian Cup 2019 and the GCC Gulf Cup 2014. Alongside his professional career, Abbassi received a BA in Business Administration from Stenden University, an Executive MBA from Manchester Metropolitan University, a Certificate in Sustainable Business Strategy from Harvard Business School and, most recently, he became an Executive Doctorate in Business Administration Candidate from the Ecole des Ponts ParisTech in Paris.

Monika Staab, born in Dietzenbach/Frankfurt, Germany in 1959, is a former German football player and manager. She has the UEFA coaching Pro-licence. After playing for German clubs such as SG Rosenhöhe Offenbach, Offenbach Kickers, and the SG Oberst Schiel, she played for clubs abroad such as Paris St. Germain and the Queens Park Rangers. Later, as coach and manager of the 1. FFC Frankfurt, she won four German championship titles, five Cup victories, and the first UEFA champions league title in 2002. Monika Staab has coached the national team of Bahrain, Pakistan, and Qatar, she has worked as a consultant, coaching instructor, and technical observer for FIFA, UEFA, the German Foreign Affair Office, the German Football Association, and the German Olympic Sport Committee, as well as for various NGOs. For the past 13 years, she has engaged with the development of women's football in over 80 countries. Monika Staab strongly believes in football as a means for social development and has shaped women’s football in Germany and abroad. In 2014, she was named Germany’s Football Ambassador for her commitment and ongoing dedication to football and gender equality. She calls herself a pioneer in women's football. For the past two years, she has been working in The Gambia in Africa.

Danyel Reiche is Visiting Associate Professor at Georgetown University-Qatar. He is on leave from the American University of Beirut (AUB) where he is a tenured Associate Professor of Comparative Politics. He is coeditor of Sport, Politics, and Society in the Middle East (Hurst/Oxford University Press, 2019).