Qatar 2022 World Cup: Laws, Changes And Legacy Benefits

The 2022 FIFA World Cup" is shaping up to be a momentous event. It will be the first to be held in the Middle East and the first to be hosted by an Arab country. It is well-known that the FIFA obligations imposed on a host country in relation to the tournament involve substantial changes to its laws in order to accommodate FIFA's commercial, licensing and tax requirements, among other issues.

This is not to say FIFA can simply impose its will and insist on complete changes to Qatar's legal system. Qatar is a relatively conservative Arab country with traditional and established legal concepts and customs. While by necessity, and by virtue of similar situations at previous World Cups, changes will need to be made to certain local laws to meet FIFA requirements, such changes will need to be through agreements between the host country and FIFA.

Getting this balance right will result in mutual benefits for Qatar and FIFA to create a successful tournament as well developing an ongoing legacy for the host country in conjunction with the Qatar National Vision 2030. Some of these changes in law are still to be agreed while others may have already set in motion positive developments, as further shown below.

Legal challenges

FIFA has strict requirements in respect of all aspects relating to a World Cup, from stadium construction, accommodation and transport to publicity and marketing matters related to the event. Changes to local laws are generally needed in order to allow for, among other things, FIFA to obtain all required Qatar government guarantees in respect of the World Cup, FIFA-designated goods and merchandise to be imported into Qatar free of customs duties, FIFA's intellectual property ('IP') and authorised sponsors and licensees to be protected against unlawful third party actions such as sale of counterfeit goods and ambush marketing (see more below). FIFA also requires that it is exempted from taxation or otherwise favourably treated in respect of World Cup-related income.

While there will be changes made to comply with such FIFA requirements it will generally still be necessary for persons doing business in Qatar to comply with existing Qatar laws, for example in respect of IP protection, events, customs and consumer protection, to the extent there is no conflict between the two.

Specific changes to laws and/or the enactment of enabling laws in respect of government guarantees, customs requirements and taxation have not yet been implemented. It is expected these will be agreed between Qatar and FIFA within an appropriate time period prior to the 2022 tournament, although the basis and extent of these new laws is not yet clear. It seems, however, that in respect of licensing and merchandising matters, such as in respect of ambush marketing and fake/counterfeit merchandise, the legal approach and position will be similar to that taken at previous World Cups, .

Sponsorship and Merchandising

Ambush marketing is essentially the unauthorised association by an entity of its products and/or...