JUSTINE EYES DOHA RETURN - Qatar Olympic Committee

o o o o o o o o o
partners
in sport
Qtel and sport –
the perfect match
Sport will be high on the agenda for Qatar telecom (QTEL) in 2008 and
beyond. The telecoms company will support many of Qatar’s most
High-profile events this year from golf to MotoGP and tennis to athletics.
The years of change before and after the 15th Asian
Games Doha 2006 have been unprecedented in the
history of Qatar sport. It has been the best of times with
every sporting stakeholder getting behind the government
plan to put sport at the centre of national life.
The business sector has been especially supportive,
as exemplified by Qatar’s leading telecommunications
company, Qatar Telecom, which has seldom been far
from the action in pursuit of this goal.
Qtel aims to support the sporting culture of the State
of Qatar while demonstrating the country’s expertise
in organising and hosting the best-in-class events. It’s a
strategy that encompasses tennis, golf, football, motorsports,
athletics and, of course, the Asian Games, and
has helped attract major international stars like Justine
Henin, Roger Federer, Ernie Els and Sergio Garcia
to these shores. But at its core, says Adel Al Mutawa,
Executive Director Group Communication Acting
at Qtel, the sponsorship strategy is based around one
simple idea - contributing to the community.
“As a Qatari company, Qtel believes it needs to
contribute to the community,” Al Mutawa explains.
“One of the major activities within the community is
sport so we believe there is a role for the private sector to
play in supporting these activities, especially those that
involve youth. As part of our investment in corporate
social responsibility, Qtel is also working in sponsorship
of the health and education sectors so there are different
elements to our strategy that will all have a positive
impact in youth and the community.”
While these important sectors deserve Qtel’s attention,
the biggest sponsorship ever undertaken by Qtel - and
the biggest technical and logistical challenge - was Qtel’s
sponsorship of the 15th Asian Games Doha 2006.
Qtel was the first of the big four ‘Prestige Partners’
to sign up for Doha 2006 and, as the official telecoms
provider to the Games, it needed as much time as
possible to put the communications infrastructure for
the event in place.
The Games of your Life
Qtel spent over QR 500m ($137 million) to provide
all telecommunications-related services for the Asian
Games and Qtel’s team worked tirelessly for two years
to upgrade its fixed and wireless networks to handle
the massive influx of visitors, international media and
broadcasters from around the world.
The result was a text-book delivery of the telecom
requirements of the Games that has raised the bar for
other operators around the world in delivering such
huge international events.
“Qtel was thrilled to be part of the Asian Games because
it was a national event,” says Al Mutawa. “As a Qatari
company we put in a lot of effort to support the country
in its goals for the Games - to achieve the expected results
and make sure the telecoms infrastructure could support
Above: Adel Al Mutawa,
Executive Director
Group Communication
Acting at Qtel.
Main picture: The
Serbian teenager Ana
Ivanovic won last year’s
Qatar Telecom German
Open.
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