The Geopolitics of Sport and Diplomacy of Neighborhood Relations in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar (Case study: Iran and the Persian Gulf Arab States)

The significance of neighborhood relations in geopolitics cannot be over-emphasized. As a space for neighborhood relations, sport is one of the most effective issues in power, competition, and convergence on national and transnational scales. International competitive sports are useful for remembering people to compare themselves with the other nation’s achievements and capabilities. Meanwhile, the Persian Gulf is the most significant region in the world due to its energy resources and strategic position. Tensions between the regional states have increased, especially between Iran and some Arab states. Most of these tensions have appeared in sport and athletic competitions. Therefore, the emergence of political-geographical rivalry in sports contests can be studied as the geopolitics of sport. This descriptive-analytic paper explained the power aspects in sport and politics from the point of the geopolitics of sport in the Persian Gulf region and studied geopolitical competitions in the region and its interaction in the sporting arena. The results of the research indicate that sports contests can bring sphere of convergence and cooperation and in some cases can provide the increasing and strengthen of tension and competition.