Khaberni - An economic observer wrote:
Prime Minister Jafar Hassan.. In investigative analysis, one does not ask: Who is to blame?
Instead, the more disturbing question is asked: What did the numbers show about the state's readiness?
And the numbers, in the file for the 2026 World Cup, do not leave much room for interpretation.
Firstly: The event by the numbers… not by emotion
The World Cup is not just a sporting tournament.
It is the biggest generator of public attention in the world, with five billion global media interactions (according to FIFA's data for the 2022 edition), and one and a half billion viewers for the final alone, in addition to hundreds of millions of searches during the draw days and the initial matches.
In the language of digital economics, this is called: Massive Earned Attention—a type of free public attention that cannot be easily bought.
Secondly: What does “reaching a billion people” mean financially? Let's move from impressions to real calculations in the global marketing arena. In paid campaigns (Europe, North America, South America), the cost of effective reach (CPM + frequency + content + retargeting) ranges between 6–10 dollars for every thousand people in wide, acceptable-quality campaigns. Therefore, if you want to reach a billion people just once, the minimum is 6–10 million dollars but this does not create awareness. To truly create awareness about a country, you need to repeat the advertisement from 5 to 8 times with multilingual content including videos, materials relevant to the public's search interests, social platforms, sports media, and manage the campaign for 6–12 months
The realistic outcome: Effective reach to a billion people with tourism awareness roughly equals a minimum of 300–400 million Jordanian dinars, which is a very conservative estimate.
Thirdly: What did the World Cup offer for free?
On December 5, 2025, the draw for the 2026 World Cup was held, and Jordan was placed in a group with Argentina, Algeria, and Austria
Three different markets, in three languages, with more than 100 million people and within just 48 hours of the draw, the search volume for the word 'Jordan' soared in Argentina, and searches increased in Austria and Algeria, suddenly bringing Jordan into the awareness of audiences that were not originally searching for it as a tourist destination. This represents a behavior known in Google Trends following major sports events and economically signifies that Jordan gained attention worth tens of millions of dinars in just two days without spending a single dinar.
Fourthly: The technical question that reveals everything When this sudden surge in searches happens, there is one question that reveals readiness or lack thereof, what did people find when they searched for Jordan?
● Did they find a single smart platform?
● Did they find a page related to the World Cup?
● Did they find content that links football with tourism?
● Did they find a clear pathway: (Visit – Discover – Book)?
The clear digital answer, which is not hard to obtain, is definitely no, because, simply put, there are no specific and specialized domains about Jordan, the team, and the World Cup, and there are no landing pages optimized for search engines up to this moment, and there is no (SEO) strategy before and during the World Cup, and what’s more crucial, there is no trace of a plan that shows a state's understanding of the attention economy.
Fifthly: What should have happened (scientifically)?
In every country that understands the World Cup as an economy, a digital infrastructure is prepared in advance, pages ready in market languages, and fast-loading content, capturing the peak search (Search Spike) as the first 72 hours are pure gold, converting attention into email data, visits, future bookings. These aren’t creative ideas but rather marketing fundamentals in countries that are alert
Sixthly: What do the numbers reveal about the government's performance?
Without speeches, and without direct blame, the numbers say:
● The government owned the world's greatest free promotional platform (the national team)
● The platform provided attention worth 300–400 million dinars.
● There are no digital indications of this attention being invested.
And in management science, without theorizing, when an opportunity doesn’t turn into an outcome, the issue isn’t in the event but in the tools or who owns them, and here precisely is where the malfunction shows either one or all of the below
● Weak tools
● Limited digital understanding
● Managing a tourist file with a traditional mindset in an age of attention economy
Seventhly: The question posed by the numbers (not politics)
Prime Minister,
This article does not ask and although there are officials responsible for this negligence, it isn’t important today to distribute accusations or seek out who is to blame and hold them accountable now, today the ball is in court and the referee (you) must run the game, a yellow or red card after the game stops, but it puts the numbers on the table and asks one question:
When 1.5 to 5 billion people hear about Jordan during the World Cup, what is the plan?
What do we want them to know?
And where do we want to take them digitally and tourism-wise?
If there is no clear answer, the issue is not with a minister despite his direct responsibility because of his jurisdiction over all tools, nor with an agency or an employee. The problem is that the state did not handle the right tools at the biggest possible moment.
The digital conclusion
● A promotional opportunity worth 300–400 million dinars was lost.
● Attention was gained… but not invested.
● The world searched… and did not find a clear path.
And in today's economy, attention that is not converted, is lost
Prime Minister
The World Cup will not wait for anyone. And the numbers do not flatter, please act quickly!
