Issue Editors: Paul Silverstein, Katie Natanel, Curtis Ryan and Deen Sharp 

The Fall 2022 issue of Middle East Report, “Football—Politics and Passions,”examines the regional and global importance of the beautiful game in the lead up to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. The authors of issue 304 reflect on the multiple ways football moves individuals and systems between South Asia, the Gulf states, Palestine, the Maghreb, Sudan, Egypt and Britain’s post-industrial North. One set of contributions takes up the domestic and international political economies through which Qatar and other GCC Countries invest in the international sporting scene, from the purchasing of European professional football clubs as a fix for petro-capital to the migration and labor issues at the heart of the 2022 tournament. Several articles go beyond the tournament to analyze the significance of football to everyday politics, gender identity and social movements in the region’s past and present. Returning to the World Cup, the issue closes with a provocative essay penned by players from an intramural football collective, Habibi FC, taking up the thorny issue of sportswashing as it has been applied to Qatar.