DOHA: Qatar on Wednesday opened one of the world’s biggest sports museums with artefacts from some of the most famous Olympic heroes but also gives prominence to local athletes hoping to boost efforts to attract a new generation into sports.
The 19,000 square meter 3-2-1 Museum Qatar Olympic and Sports Museum, next to one of the stadiums to be used in this year’s World Cup, has taken more than 15 years to get off the planning board and fill.
After scouring private collections and negotiating with the International Olympic Committee and other federations, its 17,000 objects include a glove worn by late boxing giant Muhammed Ali, when he won a gold medal at the 1960 Rome Olympics, a Ferrari driven by Formula One champion Michael Schumacher and a shirt worn by Brazilian football legend Pele.
There is also a cricket bat that belonged to Indian hero Sachin Tendukar and a torch from each of the modern Olympic Games.
The museum is part of a billion dollar-plus drive by the Qatar government to build the Gulf state into a cultural haven alongside its big spending on sports events.
But museum director Abdulla Al Mulla denied the museum only intended to put the spotlight on Qatar’s energy wealth.
“We are not showing off,” he told AFP. “We have the confidence, we earned the confidence of international federations.”
Al Mulla also said Qatar’s ruling family wanted the museum to show off the state’s sporting legacy.
A prince who has ridden horses at the Olympics is seen alongside the likes of Sheikh Hassan bin Jabor Al-Thani, who set a speed record by taking a catamaran power boat to 244 miles (395 kilometers) an hour in 2014.
Al Thani, a member of the Qatar ruler’s extended family who raced from 2003 until 2015, also said the museum was an “icon” through its recording of all Qatar’s athletes and their rankings.
“If I knew that there was a wall with a local athlete on it, for sure I would want to be better than that athlete.
“So I will do 110 percent to be on that wall as well. Now I am a target, I am behind there, and so people can work hard and remove my picture and put someone else’s on it.”
Victoria Cosgrave, curator for the museum’s Olympic gallery, said the museum was also different because it did not shy away from controversy such as drug taking by athletes, corruption and the killing of athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
“I think one of the biggest challenges that we faced — and this is not just in Qatar, it’s everywhere — is balancing the controversial aspect of sports, wanting to be honest about sport and sports people but also wanting to be respectful, be honoring and to be inspiring,” she said.
Qatar opens huge sports museum for World Cup year
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Qatar opens huge sports museum for World Cup year
- The 19,000 square metre 3-2-1 Museum Qatar Olympic and Sports Museum is next to one of the stadiums to be used in this year's World Cup
- The museum is part of a billion dollar-plus drive by the Qatar government to build the Gulf state into a cultural haven alongside its big spending on sports events
Like Leicester and Bodø/Glimt, Swiss soccer club Thun set to be historic league champion
- Thun have never won the top-tier league in the club’s 128-year history yet this season has turned the standings into a procession
- Thun are the latest unheralded European club taking inspiration from Leicester
GENEVA: Like Leicester’s Premier League title in 2016 and Bodø/Glimt’s stunning rise in Norway since 2020, Swiss soccer looks set to get its own surprise champion.
Thun have never won the top-tier league in the club’s 128-year history yet this season has turned the standings into a procession — even as a newly promoted club.
A 2-2 draw with second-place St. Gallen late Thursday stopped Thun’s run of 10 straight wins yet coach Mauro Lustrinelli’s team are 14 points clear with 10 rounds left.
“We are also a young team in the sense that the team are experiencing their first Super League,” Lustrinelli told Swiss public broadcaster SRF after his players conceded a stoppage-time goal to drop points for the first time since December.
Thun head Sunday to local rival Young Boys, a 17-time title winner and Champions League regular in recent years, as the current best team in Switzerland.
Following Leicester’s lead
Thun are the latest unheralded European club taking inspiration from Leicester.
Last year, Union Saint-Gilloise won their first Belgian title for 90 years and tiny Mjällby were champion of Sweden for the first time in their 86-year history.
Title races across Europe see Hearts on course for a first Scottish title in 66 years and Paris Saint-Germain being chased by Lens which won their only French title 28 years ago.
The most common link is clubs in provincial towns and cities run on low budgets with a collective team-first ethic.
“You really feel that it’s like a family,” Lustrinelli said last year when extending his contract at the club where he was once a star striker and has coached for four seasons.
Thun’s key players
It took Thun five years to get out of the second division after being relegated in 2020. That period included severe financial issues and being part of a multi-club ownership group backed by American and Chinese investors.
Thun are independent and locally owned again, and built a plan with Lustrinelli for a team playing the direct, pressing style he wants with two central strikers.
Top scorer this season is 12-goal Elmin Rastoder, a Swiss-born North Macedonia international who could feature in the World Cup playoffs against Denmark later this month.
Rastoder’s strike partner Thursday was Brighton Labeau, once a teammate of Kylian Mbappé, who is three years younger, when they were both in the Monaco academy.
Thun’s star prospect is Ethan Meichtry, a Switzerland under-21 midfielder who could yet make the World Cup squad.
Champions League debut
Thun were one of the smallest clubs to play in the Champions League after Lustrinelli’s 20-goal season lifted the team to Swiss league runner-up in 2005.
Thun advanced through two qualifying rounds to reach the elite stage, finishing third in a group behind Arsenal and Ajax.
Back then, Thun played European games at Young Boys’ stadium in Bern because their old home was below UEFA standard.
If Thun enter the Champions League in the second qualifying round in July, home games should be at their 10,000-seat Stockhorn Arena — with artificial turf, just like at Bodø/Glimt inside the Arctic Circle in Norway.
The Swiss champion must win through three qualifying rounds to reach the 36-team league phase.
Home of Swiss soccer
Thun will soon be the home of Switzerland’s soccer federation.
The Swiss Football Home project was approved last August and will include a new headquarters for the federation plus training fields for national teams. Next door will likely be the next Swiss champion.
“The road is still long,” Lustrinelli said of the 10-game run-in, “and we want everyone who will help us get those 30 points.”
