The Political Function and Inference of the World Cup 2022 in Qatar Lingua- Franca and Language Chants

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine the political function and inference of the World Cup 2022 in Qatar Lingua- Franca and language chants, a symbol of Arabs nationalism and unity. This has always been implied in negative concepts, but this research argues that such understanding misrepresents most football chants. The discourse involving football in World Cups’ interaction is frequently positive and integral. Language chants function as a lingua franca amongst football fans. This linguistic coding is however both inclusive and selective. Multilingual football fans/supporters such as Arabs may appreciate the resentful reputation of being nationalists and united as the situation may be, but the jeopardy of political uncertainty when all the language chants are not dealt with justly. The jeopardy of politicizing linguistic bias or disparity is high in multilingual sports arenas where one nation or language is viewed to dominate others. In the World Cup 2022 (in Qatar), Arabic and English are the official languages with equal positions. However, the strong institutionalization of linguistic stance has generated intricacies of superiority and inferiority among Arabs and others (English, French, Spanish, etc.) Arabs interacted in the fight between two language movements: Arabic-only movement performing as defensive nationalism and English-only performing as offensive Westernism. The two movements that involve the origins of nationalism and Westernism are in rivalry for endurance in sports arenas, and in attempting to do so, they recreate national and political identities grounded on language affinities. The research views that the use of lingua franca and language chants can be inferred as a symbol or linguistic umbrella for defensive nationalism and unity, which oblige political claims that may go as further as questioning the spirit of nationalism and unity.