Qatar wants to use the 2022 FIFA World Cup as a soft power mean. They want to remove stains on their reputation via sportswashing. However, there is reason to believe that this effect might not occur in the case of Qatar, or in other words; that the tournament has a soft disempowerment effect on the state of Qatar. By doing a discourse analysis this study exams if the soft power efforts of Qatar have been successful, primarily in the Swedish context by examining how the Swedish media and Swedish FA articulates about Qatar, but also in the context of FIFA. The study also examens whether the articulations can be labeled as cases of Orientalism. The results show that in the Swedish context, both an orientalist and soft disempowerment-discourse are showing, and in the case of FIFA an orientalist discourse and a discourse which suggest that the tournament has been a good soft power resource in the eyes of FIFA occurs.

Both Qatar and FIFA have been heavily criticised for the bribes and corruption resulting in Qatar obtaining the FIFA World Cup 2022. Over 6500 migrant workers in Qatar are said to have lost their lives during the construction of new arenas, and the media is an essential part for this being acknowledged. This essay examines and identifies the discourses that are dominating the articles written in the awakening of FIFAs World Cup in Qatar 2022. This will be done through studying the portrayal of Qatar in Dagens Nyheter, the Guardian and Gulf Times. The articles are studied through a narrative analysis method with support from agenda setting, framing and gatekeeping theories. The results show that western media portrays Qatar as unworthy of the world cup, while Qatari media ensures that the country will create the greatest world cup in history. The results suggest that Qatar is guilty of sportswashing through their government-controlled media.

The world of football has changed dramatically in recent years. At present the game has developed into something more than just a ball and a pitch, and the political aspects of football can not be underestimated. In terms of audience football is the biggest sport in the world, and the attention that the huge tournaments bring has become of major interest for authoritarian forces. During 2022 the world cup of football will be hosted by Qatar, and the controversies surrounding the tournament are many and have certainly caught the eye of the media. The aim of this study is to examine how Qatar as organizer of the world cup is portrayed in Swedish, American and Qatari news media based on the reporting on working conditions prior to the tournament. By implementing a discourse analysis inspired by Chantal Mouffe and Ernesto Laclau’s discourse theory we have analyzed how the arrangement is portrayed by examining choice of words, subjects, meaning and context in the chosen material. The content to be analyzed consists of articles from Aftonbladet, Washington Times and Gulf Times that have been selected by using a given time period and specific keywords. The results show that there are big differences in how Qatar is portrayed in news media from various parts of the world. Western media tends to portray Qatar as an authoritarian state with poor human rights and transparency in the process that surrounds working conditions leading up to the world cup. On the other hand, Qatari media attempts to produce an image of a groundbreaking tournament that has led to major improvements in developing labour legislation in Qatar and will be a historical event for the Middle East. The conclusions show that Swedish and American news media bases its reporting on Western values of a democracy  and how an organizer of a global event like the world cup should live up to these. The representation in the material from Aftonbladet and Washington Times indicates that Qatar does not live up to these values and ideals and is therefore an inappropriate organizer of the tournament. Qatari media respond to this criticism by defending their position as organizer of the world cup by highlighting the improvements that have been made due to the tournament and by trying to clarify that the information about horrible working conditions in the country is incorrect.