Published with license by Koninklijke Brill bv | doi:10.1163/22131418-10030002 © Tugrul Keskin, 2024 | ISSN: 2213-140X (print) 2213-1418 (online) Interview ∵ Interview with Danyel Reiche on Sport, Politics and Society in the Middle East Tugrul Keskin Political Science and International Relations, Cappadocia University, Nevsehir, Turkey tugrulk@vt.edu Routledge Handbook of Sport in the Middle East. Edited By Danyel Reiche and Paul Michael Brannagan. Routledge, 2022. Sport, Politics and Society in the Middle East. Danyel Reiche (ed.), Tamir Sorek (ed.) Oxford University Press, 2019. Dr. Danyel Reiche is a Visiting Research Fellow at the Center for International and Regional Studies (cirs) and a Visiting Associate Professor at Georgetown University Qatar. He is among the top 2% of most-cited researchers in the world, according to the 2023 Stanford University study. At cirs, Dr. Reiche leads the research project America’s Game in the Middle East: the 2027 Qatar Basketball World Cup. He also lead a research initiative on the f ifa World Cup 2022. With Paul Brannagan, he published the book Qatar and the 2022 fifa World Cup: Politics, Controversy, Change (Palgrave Macmillan 2022) and edited the volume Handbook of Sport in the Middle East (Routledge 2022). Tugrul Keskin: In your earlier work with Tamir Sorek, “Sport, Politics, and Society in the Middle East,” you discuss the increasing significance of sports in the Middle East, as illustrated by events such as Qatar’s bid for the 2022 fifa World Cup and the uefa Champions League Final in Turkey. The book highlights the region’s growing involvement in global sports and its impact on international perceptions, Sociology of Islam (2024) 1–6