I understand they want to diversify but this is not it. This is more akin to Sheikhs showing off their prized horses or falcons than building a sustainable industry.
That's why I jokingly said they could buy every single Serie A club for the money they're wasting on three 35-year olds, if this was really about creating profitable business to help pivot away from oil.
yeah but longer term the further they can disassociate their country's name from "terrorism", "terror", "the enemy", "barbarism" etc the better for them.
those showpieces are not meant to make money, they are supposed to make 'image'.
that image then feeds into their brands and other commercial exploits.
the next generation is going to grow up thinking that brand "etihad"/qatar is elite and that they are serious about business.
(and that the UK /UK standards are joke. which they are).
old colonial (and non-colonial western powers) resting on their laurels are going to increasingly lose in a war of attrition where people have non-western 1st class options.
remember: 50 years ago japanese cars were a joke, korean electronics were not on the map. the new generation learns the world as they experience it.
there is a chart out there showing how global economic GROWTH has shifted location since WWII.
about sustainability note that the 2nd richest man in the world is
Bernard Arnault - Wikipedia .
he runs
LVMH, the largest company in Europe. a company whose value is rooted in image, a european image, of superiority that means that good quality but unspectacular tat is sold at multiples of their true value.
non-european countries with money are slowly eroding that patina of assumed superiority and quality.
that massaging of public opinion is why some now have notoriously unprofitable media outlets in english for a
global audience.
like Al Jazeera, Wion, RT TV network ..