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How Will Qatar Build Good Team For 2022 World Cup?

By EDITOR
11 April 2015   |   1:53 am
Fifa’s decision to award the 2022 World Cup to the tiny Gulf state of Qatar has caused controversy since the moment it was announced.

qatar WorldcupFifa’s decision to award the 2022 World Cup to the tiny Gulf state of Qatar has caused controversy since the moment it was announced.

There have been rows about the voting, venues and the climate but not much has been mentioned about the team. So will Qatar be able to produce a team that can make the country proud when the eyes of the world are upon them in seven years’ time? What is Qatar’s football pedigree? The Qatar national football team was only formed in 1970 and is currently ranked outside Fifa’s top 100.

They have never qualified for a World Cup and have only come close once – losing at home to Saudi Arabia in the final game of qualifying for France 98 when a victory would have taken them there.

The campaign to reach Brazil last year was just as disappointing, with five wins from 14 games, and the team struggled at this year’s Asian Cup, losing all three of their group games. They would not be the first nation to be given the World Cup despite having never qualified for the tournament.

Japan had never previously qualified when it was named as co-host along with South Korea for the 2002 tournament in 1996.

They subsequently qualified for France 98 and have not missed a World Cup since. With less than 300,000 citizens, the talent pool is not deep in Qatar but the general secretary of their football association is confident giant strides are being made.

“I believe we are in a development phase of the national team right now,” Mansour Mohammed Al Ansari told BBC Sport. “We have been through an interesting time in the last year and a half when we’ve seen some changes within the national team.” Former Algeria international Djamel Belmadi took over as coach of Qatar B in 2013 and the senior team the following year.

There has been early success for Belmadi, with Qatar winning the 2014 West Asian Cup after a 2-0 final victory over Jordan in Doha. Included in the victorious team were Karim Boudiaf, who is of Algerian-Moroccan descent, and Boualem Khoukhi, who is of Algerian descent and scored both goals in the victory against Jordan.

Both have taken Qatari citizenship. Khoukhi has scored eight goals in 14 appearances for Qatar and is regarded as their best player, while Ghanaian-born Mohammed Muntari, another to have taken Qatar citizenship, made his debut for Qatar in December 2014, scoring on his debut in a match against Estonia.

Looking at the team sheet for their recent friendly against Algeria, six of the starting XI were not born in Qatar – and the process of awarding citizenship to players born outside the country has been a concern to many, including Fifa president Sepp Blatter.  It is not just football in which the Gulf state imports talent.

Perhaps the most high-profile case is Stephen Cherono. The Kenyan changed allegiances and his name to Saif Saaeed Shaheen.

He won gold at the 2003 and 2005 World Championships for his adopted nation and currently holds the world record for the 3,000m steeplechase. But Mansour Mohammed Al Ansari told BBC Sport: “I think the percentage is exaggerated on the amount of foreign football players.

“To us they are all Qatari players and we are obliged by all Fifa regulations. All of our players have the right to represent our team, whether they were born here or parents were born here or they played in our league from the age of 18 for five years.

It’s not really a strategy of having international players.” How good is the current team? Qatar, 54th in the Fifa rankings back in 1993, are currently 109th, but 2014 was arguably the country’s most successful year and some are thinking about the possibility of reaching the next World Cup in Russia.

In 2014 they also won the Gulf Cup of Nations, defeating Saudi Arabia in the final in Riyadh. It was the first time Qatar had won the tournament outside of its own country. Disappointment did follow in the Asian Cup, in Australia in January 2015, where they lost all three games and scored only two goals.

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