In the hour that followed Saudi Arabia’s defeat of Argentina in their opening game of this World Cup, 80 per cent of the global Twitter traffic for all things Qatar 2022 was generated by the Saudis.
While King Salman bin Abdulaziz responded to that jaw-dropping 2-1 win by declaring that the next day would be a national holiday, analysts said the best measure of what the victory meant to a country of 35 million people was the frenzy it sparked on social media.
For Fifa and the World Cup it is being regarded here in Doha as particularly significant, because it will strengthen the resolve of the Saudis to bring the tournament back to the Middle East as quickly as possible.
After the tournament heads
