SUSTAINABILITY IMPACT IN SPORT AND CULTURAL TOURISM: FIFA MUSEUM AND FIFA WORLD CUP 2022

Hyundai Motor Company today opened the FIFA Museum in Doha, Qatar.
Sport tourism can be defined simply as travel to a destination to experience sport. It is leisure-based tourism that takes people temporarily outside their home environment to participate in or watch physical activities or venerate attractions associated with physical activities (Gibson, 1998). Sport is unifying. It evokes many emotions in people. Therefore, it has always been able to maintain its importance.
Sport in general, and major sport events in particular, have a special role to play in supporting sustainability. Building venues and infrastructure, gathering hundreds of thousands of people from all corners of the globe, accommodating and feeding them has an inherent environmental impact. Whilst the footprint is hard to determine quantitatively over an extended period of time, according to official figures, the FIFA World Cups in South Africa in 2010 and Brazil in 2014 generated close to 2.8 millions tons of CO2e each and the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio generated 4.5 million tons of CO2e. Combined, these 3 events generated emissions equivalent to burning 11 billion pounds of coal. Some have even put sustainability at the top of their agenda, such as Paris 2024 and its ambitious target: becoming “the Greenest Games Ever”. (Solar Impulse Foundation)

What about FIFA World Cup 2022? 

It is scheduled to take place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022.

Photograph of Emblem: beIN SPORTS
In 2011, data from the World Travel Market Report presented at a sports tourism conference in London clearly highlighted that mega-sports events can attract more tourists from historic monuments, summer destinations (beaches etc.) and astonishing landscapes, attracting more than 80% of cities and experienced the phenomenon of regions hosting major sporting events becoming typical tourists, both sportspeople and fans. Looking at the impact of mega sporting events, a relationship between the development of sport and the development of tourism can easily be discerned. In addition, one of the most important roles of creative industries is museums. If sports tourism and cultural tourism are combined with a mega sports event within a sports museum, you can consider the magnitude of its impact and scope. Visits to famous stadiums or sports museums are becoming more and more popular. Due to this worldwide development, sports tourism is one of the most powerful and effective branches of the tourism industry today. The world's agenda right now: Sustainability. Therefore, you can see that the main theme emphasized both in the construction process of the museum and in the construction processes of the exhibited objects and the issues that the artists pay attention to is 'sustainability'. We are witnessing the transformation of companies in the automotive industry towards electric vehicles. At this point, the steps of the sponsors of mega sports events in the field of Sustainability are important in terms of appealing to a quite large audience. After Sharm-El Sheikh where COP 27 took place, all eyes will now be on Qatar. 
At least as museologists, our eyes will be there, the impact of the museum with sports tourism is important to us.

We reviewed the FIFA World Cup 2022 - Sustainability Strategy Contents. The foreword is left by Fatma Samoura, the Secretary General of FIFA. The foreword in the strategic document, which includes many titles such as UN Sustainable Development Goals, Human Pillar, Social Pillar, Economic Pillar, Environmental Pillar, Governance Pillar... Leaving the foreword to women professionals in the documents of such mega sports events has a quite positive effect, would you allow us to tell about the offside(!), for example, it would be nice to have such a space in the museum...

Quote from the two-page foreword by Fatma Samoura:

Sport, and football in particular, has a unique capacity to inspire and spark the passion of millions of fans around the globe. As the governing body of football, we at FIFA have both a responsibility and a unique opportunity to harness the power of the game, protect its integrity and make it accessible to all. In particular, the FIFA World Cup™ and the global attention it draws offers an unprecedented opportunity to drive positive change. We recognise that, by doing so, we will help to pass on not only a better world to future generations, but also stronger institutions, ultimately allowing us to deliver on our vision to promote and develop the game of football.
Through this strategy, we seek to align our efforts to advance sustainable development with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that aim to protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030. The SDGs were a key input for the strategy’s development and were used to define the initial list of potential material sustainability topics to be addressed as well as inspire the development of our objectives, initiatives and targets.     -Fatma Samoura (FIFA Secretary General)

Photographs: Prnewswire, FIFA, FIFA Museum and Hyundai.
FIFA Museum presented by Hyundai is part of the company's FIFA World Cup 2022 ™ 'Goal of the Century' campaign. 'Goal of the Century' aims to encourage football fans around the world to move towards achieving the greatest goal of 'A united world for sustainability'. 

Hyundai Motor Opens FIFA Museum with FIFA World Cup™ Exhibition and Reveals Record-setting Sculpture ‘The Greatest Goal’: Hyundai Motor Company today opened the FIFA Museum presented by Hyundai at FIFA Fan FestivalTM in Doha, Qatar as part of its FIFA World Cup 2022TM ‘Goal of the Century’ campaign. Opening under the theme of ‘Goals Create History,’ the special exhibition within the FIFA Museum recalls the best moments and goals in FIFA World Cup™ history. Hyundai built the FIFA Museum using the rammed earth construction technique, which allows the exterior of the building to return to nature without generating waste upon decomposition. Hyundai collaborated with UK based Architectural Consulting Group ‘Grimshaw’ and Germany based Design Agency ‘Uniplan’ for the construction and exhibition. The interior was finished with recyclable materials, highlighting the ‘Goal of the Century’ initiative’s commitment to sustainability. The exterior also embodies the combination of goal posts of the football field into one, conveying solidarity and unity toward the ‘Goal of the Century.’ 

To celebrate the occasion, Unsoo Kim, Executive Vice President of Hyundai Motor India, Middle East & Africa Strategic Region, and Jisung Park, a member of Team Century and former Korean national football team captain, joined the museum's opening together with FIFA Museum Managing Director Marco Fazzone as well as the three official FIFA Museum Ambassadors.
Hyundai also officially revealed 'The Greatest Goal' by the Italian contemporary artist, Lorenzo Quinn. Hyundai joined hands with him to create this monumental work of art inspired by football fans' shared dream of a united world for sustainability. The artist made 'The Greatest Goal' sustainably with recycled steel mesh, featuring more than 70,000 weld points. To showcase this vision, members of Team Century as well as Unsoo Kim and Jürgen Griesbeck together completed the artwork by each adding a layer of foliage to the globe.  Hyundai built the FIFA Museum using the rammed earth construction technique, which allows the exterior of the building to return to nature without generating waste upon decomposition.

• Did you remember the robot 'Spot' (a four-legged robot developed by Boston Dynamics) in the photograph of the 'The Greatest Goal' statue? It was in the presentation at our "Museums of the Future" conference.
  Exactly! That's the future of museums.