The 21st century, however, belongs to Football 3.0 (the Asian era). Over the last decade, football has been in the midst of a shift eastwards. Countries including Qatar and states of the United Arab Emirates have built extensive sponsorship portfolios in the West, acquired overseas clubs, and successfully bid to host international tournaments. More recently, China has increased the pace of world football’s ‘Asianisation’.

Wushu's global sporting popularity pales before karate, judo and taekwondo, but state media reported this month that a "Wushu Cultural Industry Investment Fund" worth $7 billion has been set up to run tournaments and promote it at home and abroad. [...] The Chinese government's development plan for the sport from 2016-2020 says that its aims include "increasing national confidence and boosting national cultural soft power".

Corruption, disorganisation, empty, expensive, violence and fear are just some of the words used to describe the Rio Olympics held this summer in Brazil’s cultural capital. The sporting competition itself came off without a hitch, but the impact the negative perception that this Games will have on Brazil’s nation brand is yet to be seen. 

The U.S. Consulate in Tijuana raised oceans conservation awareness and conducted innovative sports diplomacy in Tijuana and Rosarito. Sports Diplomacy has emerged as an integral part of efforts to build ever-strengthening relations between the United States and other nations. It uses the universal passion for sports as a way to transcend linguistic and sociocultural differences and bring people together.

The World Forum on Sport and Culture will be held in Kyoto and Tokyo from Wednesday to Saturday to discuss and exchange information about the international contributions of sport, culture and the economy. [...] We need to show international society that there are women in Japan with credibility and a strong voice in each of their fields. 

he talks were held during the Danish Foreign Minister’s official visit to Vietnam from October 11-12. [...] The two countries will enhance cultural-sports-tourism exchange to raise mutual understanding between the two peoples, accelerate the official signing of the Vietnam-European Union free trade agreement, thereby creating a framework to expand bilateral trade and investment in the future. 

The soccer soft power contrast between Qatar and Iceland speaks volumes. A comparison of the strategies of both countries demonstrates that it takes more than money to leverage soccer to create political, geopolitical and economic opportunity. Money and world soccer body FIFA’s desire to take one of the world’s foremost sporting events beyond Europe and the Americas helped Qatar win the right to host the 2022 World Cup.