Qatar’s bid to host the 2036 Olympics has been given a boost after state broadcaster beIN Sports signed a media rights deal for the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.
It is understood that beIN has acquired the rights to broadcast LA 2028 in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region, with the contract signed in recent days by International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry and beIN President Nasser al-Khelaifi during the Milan Cortina Winter Games.
Khelaifi is not a member of the Qatar Olympic Committee, which is working to bring the Games to Doha, while beIN has no formal role in promoting them. However, the president of Paris Saint-Germain is a board member of the sovereign wealth fund Qatar Investment Authority.
BeIN acquired the Olympic rights in 2015 and struck a last-minute deal last week to show the Winter Games on its streaming platform TOD. LA 2028 will be shown on all beIN channels in Mena.
Qatar announced last year it had entered into “ongoing dialogue” with the IOC about hosting 2036 in what bidding rules described as a tough fight with Ahmedabad, the home city of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Qatar has little Olympic history and the Olympic Committee was only recognized by the IOC in 1980, but the country has invested heavily in its sports infrastructure over the past two decades as it seeks to become the first Arab country to host the Olympics.
The pitch to the IOC is expected to highlight the financial and environmental sustainability of the bid, as 95% of the venues it plans to use are already in place as a legacy of hosting the 2022 World Cup. Doha is also a compact city where a new metro system was built for the World Cup, and Hamad International Airport is a global transport hub.
An Olympics in Qatar would cause controversy given the country’s stance on LGBTQ+ rights and limited history of women’s sports. Qatar did not send female athletes to the Olympics until London 2012, when their female team had four competitors and sprinter Shahd Mohamed was their only female competitor at the Paris Games.
India’s planned Olympic bid will also receive heavy political support as Ahmedabad is the power base of the country’s ruling BJP party. Moreover, Nita Ambani, whose family wealth is estimated at over $120 billion, has been a member of the IOC since 2017 and has been lobbying for India since Paris 2024.
A Times of India report last year estimated the cost of staging the Games in Ahmedabad at a record $7.5 billion, far exceeding LA’s $5 billion budget.
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