The Qatar World Cup is about to shatter colonial myths

Qatar was a British protectorate between 1916 and 1971. Football came to Qatar via colonialism. The Doha Stadium was the first football arena with a grass pitch in the Gulf region. Postcolonialism studies have had little to say about football. Many of the slums of former colonies have produced major stars. Qatar's World Cup could help decolonise biased thinking about Arab and Muslim societies. It could also use their diverse cultures to enrich the global experience of football, for example, by using alcohol-free stadiums. It is another chance to display their affinity with multiculturalism to counter the Western stereotype of a fanatic Muslim.

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial stance.