Abstract
UK sports broadcasters found themselves at the centre of political debate at the 2022 Qatar World Cup. Sports broadcast journalists interpreted their public-service function as both critiquing and covering the tournament and metajournalistic discourse was important in legitimating two seemingly contradictory professional positions. However, sports broadcasters also found themselves contending with politically charged viewpoints that asserted they should either not criticise Qatar at all or boycott the World Cup if they adopted critical positions. This chapter considers how metajournalistic discourse on the professional integrity, ethics, conduct and standards of sports broadcasters was utilised by practitioners to justify critiquing and covering Qatar 2022 and political/media commentators as part of a broader narrative on culture wars. It considers key and prominent critical incidents of metajournalistic discourse from both political and practitioner positions that played out in the media both before and during the World Cup. The chapter concludes by arguing that the centrality of sports broadcasters to political debate are likely to replicate and repeat at mega-events going forward given the increasingly unstable and unpredictable geo-political climate.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | The FIFA World Cup in Qatar |
| Subtitle of host publication | Reflections from the Perspective of Sports Communication and Sports Policy. |
| Editors | Jurgen Mittag, Christof Seeger, Jorg-Uwe Nieland |
| Publisher | Springer |
| Publication status | Accepted/In press - 2025 |