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"The headline of our World Cup preview story was: ‘The football world

meets for a tournament of excess’. Did we manage to ensure that our

own coverage of this global event was not ‘excessive’?"

The headline of our World Cup preview

story was: ‘The football world meets for a

tournament of excess’. Did we manage to

ensure that our own coverage of this global

event was not ‘excessive’?

There is no doubt that the Qatari hosts were excessive in

terms of the budget, stadium construction, and infrastruc-

ture.

As for us, we deployed the right level of resources. We had

the same number of people as for previous World Cups,

with a few adjustments here and there due to the special

feature of this tournament: it all happened in the same

place. In text, we had 57 journalists working in six lan-

guages, including 14 in French, 14 in English, 14 in German

(via our German subsidiary SID), 8 in Spanish, 6 in Arabic

and one in Portuguese. We had around 50 people covering

for photo, including 15 editors, plus 15 VJs coordinated by

two editors. These teams were being constantly rotated

and we started to draw down our staff after the last-16

matches. Journalists covering a certain team went home if

that country was knocked out.

So in fact our organisation was a bit unusual it was more

like an Olympic Games where everything basically takes

place in the same location Covering a World Cup is nor

mally a complex operation with teams deployed in several

cities You have to travel by plane book hotel rooms just

about everywhere often at the very last minute depending

on the result of a match But in Qatar everything was simple

and convenient We were able to be extremely flexible We

were all in the same place in a block of 30 or so fourroom

apartments To get somewhere we just had to jump in a car

or a shuttle bus This allowed us a high degree of editorial

flexibility Covering a team was easy even after a shock re

sult for example when Saudi Arabia beat Argentina The

same was true for the press conferences with every teams

manager and captain These took place in the main media

centre and we were only about 30 metres away

All this meant that apart from an Internet crash that was

down to the organisers everything passed off without the

slightest hitch.

In terms of innovation, we invested a lot in our robot came-

ras. These have moved on considerably and now have a

tracking function. This enables our robots installed in the

stadium roof to automatically follow the best players. The

idea is to give us original photo production and the maxi-

mum possible number of angles on the crucial or contro-

versial moments of the match. The groundwork has now

been laid and the technology can be rolled out for several

events in 2023.

Was politics a big factor during this World

Cup?

It’s not the first time that politics played a part in a World

Cup. It happened in Argentina (1978) or Russia (2018).

One notable thing about this World Cup was that the po-

litics did not stop when the sport started. We saw politics

burst onto the pitch several times, for example when the

Iranians refused to sing their national anthem in support of

women’s rights in their country, or when the Germans co-

vered their mouths to draw attention to the human rights

situation in Qatar Some politicians mainly European dis

played LGBTQ symbols

It was also the first time that an Arab country has hosted

a World Cup People were waiting for them to trip up and

there was plenty of acerbic criticism from several Western

countries But it was well organised and everything passed

off very smoothly

This political background again highlighted the impor

tance of our global network which was very attuned and

reactive on these topics including in Qatar itself We saw

this in the stories from all around the network that en

riched our coverage ahead of and during the tournament

Of course we covered the issue of climate change and

immigrant workers well ahead of the tournament via the

Doha bureau the Middle East region and the Chief Sports

Editors in Paris We should not forget that the Middle East

region was also dealing with the COP climate summit

that took place in Egypt between 620 November A lot of

RICHARD CARTER

DEPUTY GLOBAL

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

QATAR WORLD CUP

3 QUESTIONS TO

EMMANUEL PIONNIER

HEAD OF SPORTS DEPARTMENT

forward-planning went into these events and we really ap-

preciated the contributions from the bureaux.

On the issue of human rights, we sent a journalist from the

sports department as early as March to reinforce the Doha

bureau (bureau chief, a VJ and stringers). This team worked

well despite difficult reporting conditions. For example we

were able to look into the figure of 6,500 workers killed

on construction sites, put forward by the Guardian, and

debunk it. In fact, this was the total number of foreigners

who had died over a period of 10 years and not only those

killed on sites building the stadiums and host facilities. We

should note that we did not encounter any problems with

the local authorities, despite a very tricky relationship with

them.

Internally, we never talked about boycotting this World

Cup. We are journalists. We go on the ground. The question

would have arisen if we had not been able to work as we

wished. That was our red line and it was not crossed.

We eventually forgot all the politics and the sport took

over. It’s a simple fact: football dominates everything, eve-

rywhere, and the viewing figures hit a new record.

For 2026, in the US, Canada and Mexico,

will we need to prepare differently

Very differently In Qatar almost every journalist was able

to see a dozen games because they all took place in Doha

or close by The next World Cup will be a much more com

plicated affair For starters it will take place over three huge

countries in 16 cities across several time zones Next we

will go from 32 teams in Doha to 48 There were 64 matches

in Doha In 2026 there will be between 80 and 100 matches

depending on the format chosen by the organisers This

means we are going to have to make editorial choices be

cause we will not be able to cover these matches with as

many reporters in the stadiums as we had in Doha Its also

going to be a more difficult exercise on the logistical and

travel front given the size of the countries involved and

the different time zones

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