Soccer World Cup in Qatar: The crises of the world in a VIP lounge – Opinion

Can football actually develop a unifying force? The opening day, at least, brings together a few people who might not otherwise have met. Only the game falls behind, but so be it.

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Dunya Ramadan

The World Cup in Qatar brings a wide variety of people together, and FIFA boss Gianni Infantino and Hassan al-Thawadi, head of organization for the World Cup, evoke the unifying power of football on a daily basis. Whether the fan to the right of someone you would otherwise never have met in life is now the best new friend for life, as al-Thawadi theatrically claims, are questions that are more likely to be asked by political observers: Because in Doha, for the first time, the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The two states have been at odds since 2013. Erdoğan was closely linked to the democratically elected Muslim Brotherhood, Mohammed Morsi, and did not want to recognize al-Sisi, a military man, as his successor.

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