An Increasing Popularity
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The Gulf Cup has dramatically featured increased attendance in the stadia, as well as increased public, and worldwide attention. This has been in particular due to Qatar's role in expanding and improving the competition. Due to Qatar spending big on sports, and hosting competitions such as the 2006 Asian Games, as well as various international tennis events, the Qatari Ministry of Sports, and the State of Qatar was more than happy to improve the local competition.
During the 2004 Gulf Cup of Nations, which was held in Qatar, the stadiums were generally full, due to Qatar's advertising and impressive planning and handling of the competition. Also during the 2004 competition, a new trophy was constructed in Italy to further push the Gulf Cup of Nations to become a competition on the worldwide level. Another impressive difference between this competition, and previous ones was the fact that more than football was competed for, but this time volleyball, handball, and basketball were also included in the competition.
Another major point that helped Qatar improve the competition was the fact that Al Jazeera Sports, the leading sports channel in West Asia, and North Africa is based in Doha. Al Jazeera Sports won broadcasting rights to the 2004, and exclusively in the 2009 Gulf Cup after a deal ending in $23.5 million, and dramatically reformed the Gulf Cup of Arabian Nations by hosting numerous talk shows and documentaries, on top of filming in HD and perfecting camerawork of matches.
The Gulf Cup of Nations tournament is a tournament not officially recognized by FIFA, but recent steps have been taken to make the competition official, such as the attending of matching from powerful people in football, such as FIFA president, Sepp Blatter, and UEFA president, Michel Platini.
Read more about this topic: Gulf Cup Of Nations
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