Qatar Airways Sponsors FIFA World Cup 2022

Qatar Airways announced that it has become one of the official sponsors of the FIFA World Cup 2022. Their support has been steadily given for a handful of years to a variety of sports popular among Arab nations, like horse racing, rugby, and competitions within these sports. According to the author of Arabicbet, Basil Sadiq Sofi, Qatar is hosting the FIFA World Cup not only for the first time in its history, but for the first time in the Middle East. Therefore, the airline sponsorship program has come into focus as it is the first time that an Arab country will host the World Cup, emphasising the importance of this event in bridging the Arab-Western divide.

Qatar Airways, one of the youngest airlines to offer international flights across 6 continents, continues to raise its profile by sponsoring international sporting competitions, particularly FIFA. Qatar Airways Sponsorships

Qatar Airways offers support for a range of initiatives and sporting activities all over the world, creating long term partnerships with customers and fans alike. Qatar Airways is a particularly active supporter of sports, and the airline loves sports events. When it comes to sports, the list of sponsored events and teams is vast and includes, among others:

• FIFA

• Qatar Tennis Federation Tournaments

• CHI AL SHAQAB

• Sydney Swans

• Qatar Squash Federation

These sponsorships have proven to bring many benefits to the sporting table. The support for a sports organization, event, or team by a company like Qatar Airways has mutual benefits. Qatar Airways benefits by way of enjoying powerful advertising. The popularity of sports like FIFA and the televised nature of their events can make brand names quite popular, reaching an audience previously untapped. What's more, successful teams link the names of the sponsors with their success, promoting images of high performance and healthy lifestyles. FIFA enjoys benefits from the sponsorship as well, such as promotion of special events, more money invested in facilities and coaching, as well as support for training previously available.

FIFA Sponsorship

In order for FIFA to host its World Cup events, it relies on sponsorships to reach its surplus for every four year cycle. For the 2018 and 2022 events, that cycle required an extra $100 million from sponsors. Qatar Airways joined ranks with other prominent companies including Adidas, Hyundai, Visa, Coca-Cola, and Gazprom to help reach this goal. When the deal was signed for Qatar Airways to begin its sponsorship of FIFA in May of 2017 the airline signed on to provide support for the next two competitions: those in Russia and those in Qatar. This represented one of the largest sporting sponsorships across the entire world, and the largest in the history of Qatar Airways.

Preparations began immediately, with the airline slowly but surely producing a stream of updates, new products, and reminders of what is to come in the 2022 games. Less than 2 years ago, a bespoke Boeing aircraft was hand painted with images to represent the World Cup and released to the public. Patrons can book a flight to one of Qatar Airways’ 130 destinations with the possibility of flying on said aircraft. Drawing attention from the public to FIFA World Cup tournaments, tennis matches, and even esports games is an essential part of raising money as a sponsor, and of course, raising the profile of the airlines. Their support of the tournament has been used as a representation for the entire Arab World, particularly because of how Qatar is able to garner support from member states across the entirety of the Arab League.

FIFA Esports Games

Arabic countries are heavily invested in sport games so the work done by Qatar Airways is very popular. In fact, Qatar Airways tweeted in support of eSports events over the last few years, providing fans with places to watch esports competitions, upcoming competitions for those who want to participate, and events around the world with one tweet encouraging fans: “This is for the gamers and eSports lovers, keen to watch their favorite video games and sports matches @DohaFestCity. Virtuocity Qatar is the place to be to watch it all.

But FIFA is not their only area of sponsorship. As mentioned, Qatar Airways has been a pivotal sponsor for years of many other sports, particularly those popular across Arab nations. One of the other more popular sponsorships by Qatar Airways is that of the Qatar Open Men's and Women's tennis tournaments, but this year they went above and beyond, offering an individual sponsorship to Ons Jabeur, a Tunisian born tennis player considered to be one of the all-time best Arab tennis players in the world. Qatar Airways has been an official sponsor of the equestrian races of CHI AL SHAQAB since 2014. As well, it expanded its reach to include the Australian Football team the Sydney Swans in 2016. Adding to their list, Qatar Airways started a sponsorship for the popular Qatar Squash Federation in 2019.

Qatar Airways Journey To Sports Sponsorship

Prior to becoming an official sponsor, Qatar Airways made a name for themselves as one of the world's fastest growing airlines. Today they have a fleet of top of the line aircraft which provide flights to over 130 travel destinations worldwide. They launched in 1997 and since that time they have earned the Skytrax 5 star rating for many years including 2011, 2012, 2017, and 2019. During that time, Qatar Airways has increased public awareness and support for its international travel by way of its benevolence and sponsorships. The airline offers sponsorships for cultural events, entertainment, and an incredibly generous sponsorship of local arabic sports. Their criteria for sponsorship include groups and events which have a tangible impact on their community, a prestigious brand which can agree to a long term sponsorship, ideal media exposure to promote the airline, and the potential for exposure to target markets.

All of this simply means that Qatar Airways is here to stay and the groups and events they choose to sponsor are groups and events in it for the long haul. They are poised to reach the same market of customers who would not only enjoy a FIFA event or two, but also a flight on Qatar Airways to get to these events.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or management of EconoTimes