Why Qatar needs actions, not words, to improve its image

Qatar has an image problem – and doesn’t it know it.

Which is why the leader of its organising committee is on a charm offensive to reassure all the doubters about the first middle eastern World Cup.

The plight of migrant workers – they say they’ll improve conditions.

The health and safety of players and fans during the height of summer – if asked to move to winter, they will.

And then the long-standing concerns about the uneasy confluence of Qatari money, and political – and footballing influence.

Qatar is the richest county on earth, and is desparate not to appear the vulgar nouveau riche, splashing whatever cash it takes to get what it wants.

It is all too sensitive that the public perception of the county has not helped. People tell me they cringe when their image for Qatar’s future is conflated with the very public spending sprees of the Qatari Investment Authority, and the image of the new generation of rich Arabs with money to burn in the worlds most expensive boutiques.

And so it was that we interviewed the head of their orgainsing committee (see video above). A man charming, engaged, intelligent, and funny. Who is fond of the fact he went to school in Scunthorpe and studied in Sheffield.

We were told the interview would be short: just two questions. In fact, Hassan Al-Thawadi was so voluble and – let me say it plain – so nice, that it went on for much longer.

Pity for him that but a moment later, his PR team were reduced to holding their heads in their hands and grimacing. They hadn’t noticed a Rolls-Royce convertible had been performing a 17-point turn in the background of the shot.

Qatar, and money – new, old, or oil, it’s all the same to the viewer – are inextricably linked.

It requires more than a few interviews for them to shift the narrative. It requires action.

And the first item on the agenda: improving the lot of the low-paid migrant workers who are building Qatari citadels out of sand.

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