Speaker
Rory Smith
Appearances over time
1 episodes
Episodes
1
Podcasts
Quotes & moments
Argentina won the 2022 World Cup for the third time in their history, their first title in 36 years, beating France in a penalty shootout.
FIFA announced it made $7.5 billion over the four-year cycle between the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, including $1 billion in excess profit.
The city of Lusail, which hosted the World Cup final, did not exist a decade before the tournament, built entirely for the event.
Morocco became the first African side ever to reach the World Cup semi-finals, also representing the Arab world at the first Arab-hosted World Cup.
It took 92 years for a World Cup to be held in the Arab world, with Qatar 2022 being the first; the next could be Saudi Arabia in just 8 more years.
Schools in Doha were closed for six weeks and most offices shut for the duration of the tournament, giving FIFA an unprecedented blank canvas.
Saudi Arabia has invested heavily in sports including buying Premier League club Newcastle United, launching the LIV Golf Tour, and investing in Formula 1.
New apartment blocks surrounding Qatar's sovereign wealth fund towers in Lusail are intended to attract 250,000 future residents.
A wall of thousands of photos of migrant workers who built Lusail Stadium was painted over with FIFA branding before the first game, serving as a metaphor for the tournament.
Lionel Messi won his first World Cup at age 35, completing the one trophy that had eluded him throughout his career.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman sat close to Qatar's Emir at the opening ceremony — unthinkable just years before when Saudi led a blockade of Qatar.
Jared Kushner attended the World Cup final in a corporate box alongside Elon Musk, part of a parade of global political and business leaders through Qatar.
FIFA made $7.5 billion over the four-year Qatar cycle, including $1 billion in excess profit. Qatar was perfect for them: schools closed for six weeks, cities built from scratch, no democratic friction. This was FIFA Land in its purest form.
Penalty shootouts create villains through no fault of their own. The tension of knowing someone will be broken is what makes them the most exquisite torture ever devised in sport — and the Argentina-France final had one of the best.
No one picked Morocco. They beat Belgium, Spain, and Portugal to reach the semi-finals — the first African nation ever to do so. With celebrations erupting in Cairo, Amman, Tunis, and Riyadh, Morocco became something bigger than soccer: a symbol for the Arab world.
Fences everywhere. Constant music. Vapid slogans like 'Now is all.' Western brands and Western celebrities plastered over an Arab country. Rory Smith lived in FIFA Land for a month and emerged with a verdict: it is international, disembodied, and designed to make you forget where you are.
Saudi Arabia has been buying sports: Newcastle United, LIV Golf, Formula 1. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has a relationship with FIFA president Gianni Infantino. And now that Qatar proved the model works, there is little reason to expect FIFA to turn down another authoritarian blank canvas.
Antony Blinken. Emmanuel Macron. Jared Kushner. Elon Musk. Mohammed bin Salman sitting next to the Emir of Qatar just years after a Saudi blockade. The World Cup became a forum for global power — and Qatar reveled in playing the host.
When Morocco beat Portugal to become the first African team in a World Cup semi-final, people weren't just celebrating in Rabat — they were in the streets in Cairo, Amman, Tunis, and Riyadh. Morocco wasn't just an underdog. They were carrying an entire region's pride.
Qatar sits in a dangerous neighborhood — Saudi Arabia on one side, Iran on the other — with the world's third-largest natural gas reserves. Hosting the World Cup wasn't about soccer. It was about announcing Qatar as an established global player, so unfamiliar to the world no longer.
At 35, Lionel Messi finally won the one trophy that had eluded him his entire career. Argentina beat France in a penalty shootout after an astonishing comeback, giving Messi — arguably the greatest player who ever lived — the World Cup crown.
Outside Lusail Stadium there was a wall of thousands of photos of the migrant workers who built it. Qatar put it there as an acknowledgment of human cost. Before the first game, FIFA painted over it with their branding. That, Rory Smith says, was the perfect metaphor for Qatar 2022.
Qatar took 12 years of reputational damage to get here. FIFA suppressed every inconvenient question. And in the end, a Messi World Cup win dazzled the planet into forgetting all of it. The sport worked. The plan worked. And that's the most unsettling conclusion of all.
Beer bans, anti-LGBTQ enforcement, the armband row — in the first two weeks, Qatar and FIFA seemed determined to make the tournament about control. Then the games started. Saudi Arabia beat Argentina, Japan toppled Germany, and nobody was talking about anything else.
Analysis
What they talk about
- Sports 67%
- Government 17%
- Business 8%
- Society & Culture 8%
