Qatar has spent billions of dollars constructing infrastructure and facilities for the 2022 World Cup. What impacts do sporting mega-events have on host countries? African soccer expert Peter Alegi examines the lessons and legacies we can draw from South Africa’s experience in 2010, and tells us what to look for in the forthcoming World Cup.
Peter Alegi is a History Professor at Michigan State University, and the author of Laduma! Soccer, Politics & Society in South Africa and African Soccerscapes: How a Continent Changed the World’s Game, and also co-editor of Africa’s World Cup and South Africa and the Global Game. Alegi’s latest work has been published in the Journal of Southern African Studies, the International Journal of the History of Sport, and Radical History Review, as well as in edited books like Sports in Africa and Global Africa. His current research projects include a study of the role of digital technology in African history.