Czechia, DR Congo Round Out Atlanta World Cup Slots, Raising New Sports Diplomacy and Investment Prospects 

Atlanta’s full slate of first-round FIFA World Cup competitors shook out this week with two contests that helped settle the full field for the expanded 48-team tournament. 

By defeating Denmark on penalties in a nail-biter of a European qualifier, the Czech Republic punched its ticket to Atlanta, giving the city another touch point with the Central European nation that has seen its economic and diplomatic engagement with Atlanta ratchet up in recent years. 

Czech Ambassador Miloslav Stašek, a frequent visitor to the city during his tenure in Washington, told Global Atlanta that the Czech team’s entry into the tournament would create a “unique window of opportunity” to solidify business ties by concentrating “attention, mobility and business activity” in North America, leading to deeper ties. 

“We expect a visible and energetic presence of Czech supporters across host cities in the United States and Mexico,” the ambassador said in an emailed statement. “Matches in places such as Atlanta will bring together traveling fans, Czech Americans, and partners who share a connection to the Czech Republic. The atmosphere will not only be about football. It will be about identity, community, and shared experience.”

Honorary Consul Monika Vintrlikova said the sporting event will add more fuel for the business and cultural exchanges she has been spearheading in Georgia. 

Ms. Vintrlikova has set up the Czech Business Incubator of Atlanta in Peachtree Corners to help Czech companies break into the market, while leading delegations to the country and even attracting investors that have set up shop within her manufacturing complex in Flowery Branch. 

In the at-large division, the Democratic Republic of the Congo eked by Jamaica 1-0, giving the massive nation in the heart of Africa its first berth in the tournament in 52 years (it previously competed as Zaire).  

The DRC has fewer businesses in Georgia, but it does have an enthusiastic diaspora community that will be primed to continue discussions on how the Atlanta can engage with the country. Government officials have visited Atlanta in the past to drum up business ties and efforts to boost sourcing of minerals, agricultural goods and beyond. The DRC is about one-fourth the size of the U.S., occupying a landmass bigger than France, Germany, Spain and the U.K. combined. 

While conflict in its east has hindered investment, efforts to source cobalt and other mineral essential to the energy transition have spurred renewed interest, and the U.S. is working with the EU and other partners on the Lobito Corridor, a rail line linking the DRC interior with the Lobito port in Angola.

More than 130,000 people born in Africa were counted in Georgia during the most recent American Community Survey. That’s about a tenth of the state’s foreign born population.

Atlanta has long fashioned itself a key node in connecting the continent to the United States as investment and trade ties grow. The Congo’s links to the U.S. and Belgium, which brutally colonized the country for a half-century, were interrogated during a program 10 years ago called Africa Atlanta.The DRC also maintains health and humanitarian ties with many organizations in Atlanta including The Carter Center, which monitors the extraction of conflict minerals there, and the foundation of the late Hawks basketball player Dikembe Mutombo.

That said, even the inclusion of a second African partner could be seen as a blow to Atlanta, where Jamaicans form perhaps the city’s largest diaspora community. That’s especially relevant as World Cup boosters focus on some domestic diaspora communities, especially Haiti, amid travel bans and restrictions that are forcing some international constituencies to abandon their inbound travel plans.

More than 41,000 Jamaican-born residents live in metro Atlanta, mostly in DeKalb and Gwinnett counties — enough to fill more than half of Mercedes-Benz Stadium.