{"id":5566,"date":"2017-08-03T15:00:37","date_gmt":"2017-08-03T15:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amazingproperty.com.ng\/blog\/qatar-hits-back-at-rivals-with-neymar-soft-power-play\/"},"modified":"2017-08-03T15:00:37","modified_gmt":"2017-08-03T15:00:37","slug":"qatar-hits-back-at-rivals-with-neymar-soft-power-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amazingproperty.com.ng\/blog\/qatar-hits-back-at-rivals-with-neymar-soft-power-play\/","title":{"rendered":"Qatar hits back at rivals with Neymar soft power play"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n<\/p>\n<div itemprop=\"description\" readability=\"155\">\n<p>With the anticipated transfer of football phenomenon Neymar to Paris Saint-Germain, Qatar is hitting back at its Gulf rivals with a high-profile soft power play.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_423120\" style=\"width: 417px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cdn.vanguardngr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/Neymar1.jpg?resize=417%2C338\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cdn.vanguardngr.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/lazy-load\/images\/1x1.trans.gif\" class=\" wp-image-423120\" alt=\"\" width=\"417\" height=\"338\"\/><noscript><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-423120\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cdn.vanguardngr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/Neymar1.jpg?resize=417%2C338\" alt=\"\" width=\"417\" height=\"338\"\/><\/noscript><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Neymar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Paris Saint-Germain \u2014 owned by sanctions-hit Qatar \u2014 are poised to sign Brazilian forward Neymar from Barcelona for a world-record transfer fee of 220 million euros ($256.54 million), more than doubling the previous record.<\/p>\n<p><!-- between content ad --><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe announcement of Neymar\u2019s transfer to PSG was piloted among the high ranks in Qatar as a sort of communications strategy that would overshadow the debate around all other considerations, namely terrorism,\u201d said Mathieu Guidere, an expert in the geopolitics of the Arab world.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor days now, nobody has mentioned the negative \u2014 it\u2019s all about the Neymar transfer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The transfer comes as Qatar faces its worst political crisis in decades, with Saudi Arabia leading a four-state bloc that suspended all ties with Doha last month over accusations the emirate had close ties to Islamist extremist groups and Saudi Arabia\u2019s regional rival Iran.<\/p>\n<p>Qatar has denied the allegations, arguing that the sanctions aim to bring gas-rich emirate to its knees.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u2013 \u2018International soft power\u2019 \u2013<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>On June 5, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain pulled their ambassadors from Qatar, ordered all Qataris to return home and banned Qatar from using their ports or airspace.<\/p>\n<p>The Saudi-led bloc later publicly released a 13-point list of demands as a condition for the end of the sanctions.<\/p>\n<p>The list includes the closure of Qatari broadcast giant Al-Jazeera, which the bloc accuses of hate speech and encouraging extremism over its airing of the tapes of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, killed in a US operation in 2011.<\/p>\n<p>Qatar, the world\u2019s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG), has risen as a key broker over the past two decades in the multiple conflicts and clashes of the Arab world.<\/p>\n<p>The tiny emirate has also leveraged power through massive investments in <a href=\"https:\/\/amazingproperty.com.ng\/blog\/property-center-nigeria\/\">real estate<\/a> abroad, including hotels, as well as in aviation, media and professional sports.<\/p>\n<p>In his first and only speech since the start of the crisis, Qatar\u2019s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, openly said he would be turning to \u201csources of soft power at the international level\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>With the Neymar transfer, Doha may be looking to cash in its cache of soft power.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a soft power stunt. Qatar needs to demonstrate to the world\u2026 that, despite all the allegations, Qatar is the most resilient country in the Middle East by far,\u201d said Andreas Krieg, a political risk analyst at King\u2019s College London.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHaving the best player in the world shows the rest of the world that if Qatar is determined, they still have the largest assets to draw from and if needed they will use the money that they have to further their agenda,\u201d Krieg told AFP.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u2013 \u2018At whatever price\u2019 \u2013<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Qatar\u2019s ties to international football go back several years and the Gulf state is to host the 2022 World Cup.<\/p>\n<p>International sports broadcaster beIN SPORTS was a subsidiary of Al-Jazeera, and between 2013 and June 2017, FC Barcelona athletes wore jerseys bearing the Qatar Airways logo.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor the time being, Qatar\u2019s opponents are paralysed by this circumvention strategy, as none of them has that level of media leverage in the field of international sports,\u201d said Guidere.<\/p>\n<p>On the flipside, one argument backing Neymar\u2019s decision to leave Barca, on top of reportedly tripling his wages, is to move out of the shadow of Lionel Messi.<\/p>\n<p>If the Neymar transfer goes through, it would more than double the previous record of 105 million euros ($124 million) that Manchester United paid Juventus last year for France\u2019s Paul Pogba.<\/p>\n<p>The transfer will hardly dent Qatar\u2019s budget.<\/p>\n<p>Qatar has moved to boost business with the West since the start of the Gulf crisis, which analysts says threatens the unity of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council.<\/p>\n<p>Doha has signed two major contracts in recent weeks, both military: a $12 billion acquisition deal to purchase F-15 fighters from the United States and a $6 billion deal for navy vessels from Italy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe per capita reserves they have are the greatest in the world,\u201d said Krieg.<\/p>\n<p>The cost of the potential Neymar transfer \u201csends a very strong signal to the sporting world and a very strong signal of defiance towards the UAE and Saudi Arabia,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey wanted this player and they used the money to buy him at whatever price.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a hre=\"http:\/\/www.vanguardngr.com\/2017\/08\/qatar-hits-back-rivals-neymar-soft-power-play\/\"> Vanguard <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With the anticipated transfer of football phenomenon Neymar to Paris Saint-Germain, Qatar is hitting back at &hellip; <a title=\"Qatar hits back at rivals with Neymar soft power play\" class=\"hm-read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/amazingproperty.com.ng\/blog\/qatar-hits-back-at-rivals-with-neymar-soft-power-play\/\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Qatar hits back at rivals with Neymar soft power play<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5567,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[1403,15239,12908,543,84,15309],"class_list":["post-5566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opportunities-in-new-markets","tag-buy","tag-chase","tag-home","tag-home-buying-guide","tag-real-estate","tag-ups"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/amazingproperty.com.ng\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Neymar1.jpg?fit=250%2C205&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amazingproperty.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amazingproperty.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amazingproperty.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amazingproperty.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amazingproperty.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amazingproperty.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amazingproperty.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amazingproperty.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amazingproperty.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amazingproperty.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}