Former Tottenham and Liverpool director of football Damien Comolli has highlighted the Josoor Institute’s contributions towards professionalisation of the sports industry in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region.
Talking on the sidelines of his Josoor Institute-organised lectures on leadership and management in Doha, Comolli also said that 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar is an event which will create an economic legacy for the country.
“The 2022 FIFA World Cup will be a seminal moment in the diversification of Qatar’s economy into a sustainable, knowledge-based one,” said Comolli, who signed Gareth Bale and Luis Suarez during his stints with the Premier League giants. “Therefore, it is appropriate that Josoor, the region’s pioneering institute in the sports industry, will have a substantial role to play in this economic transformation.”
The Frenchman, who at 32 was the youngest person to be appointed director of football at a Premier League club when he took over at Tottenham in 2005, pointed to the importance of education as a major legacy element for any major tournament, and said Qatar could provide a regional benchmark in that regard.
“The main legacy element of any mega sporting event is people and the 2022 World Cup will be no different. It will give an impetus to Josoor in creating a robust sports industry by broadening the knowledge base of the people of Qatar and the region, and facilitating their interaction with professionals from those parts of the world where sport is a mature industry.”
Comolli, who reported to Arsene Wenger as the European talent scout for Arsenal between 1996 and 2003, said that the Qatar national team could also aim for a competitive performance on home turf: “Qatar could aim to maximise their performance along the lines of South Korea’s achievement at home in the 2002 FIFA World Cup and that of the US ice hockey team in the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid.
“The American team was a bunch of collegiate students and the world gave them no chance against the mighty Soviet Union in the final. But they turned the apparent weakness to strength by developing a strong bond within the unit. Coach Guus Hiddink did something similar with South Korea in 2002, taking them to the semi-finals against all odds. He identified a core group from the K-League early on and got them to train together right up until the tournament. The result spoke for itself. The Qatar national team could train and live together for an extended period of time before the start of the World Cup and thereby develop a common culture by sharing their thoughts and experiences.”
Will Comolli’s own legacy to world football be the signing of Bale and Suarez at Tottenham and Liverpool respectively? “I have never thought about myself thus,” he said. “I am very proud of where both of them are today. All I can say is that we created conducive environments in which they could maximise their talent.” (SC.qa)