Qatar’s World Cup dream turning into embarrassment

NEW YORK — When Brazil beat Paraguay on Tuesday in Sao Paulo, it became the first nation to lock up a place alongside host Russia in the 2018 World Cup. Hours earlier, and half a world away, another result might have been as significant.

Qatar, which will host the World Cup in 2022, ensured that it would not qualify directly for Russia when it lost 1-0 to Uzbekistan in Tashkent. In addition to cutting off the straightest route to the tournament, the loss also meant that the potential lifeline of a playoff — and a last-chance hope for entry into the 2018 field — is most likely out of reach for Qatar.

When that elimination is mathematically confirmed — perhaps as soon as the team’s next Asian Football Confederation qualifier, against South Korea in June — Qatar will earn the dubious distinction of being the first host in the modern game never to have made the tournament on its own merit. And that reality, an embarrassment that the country’s football authorities had hoped to avoid since the day they won the hosting rights in 2010, has provoked strong reactions at home.

“Qatar desperately wanted to play in a World Cup before they host it,” said Ravi Kumar, an editor at the Qatari sports magazine Doha Stadium Plus. “Critics have been questioning Qatar’s football credentials ever since they won the right to host.”

Mixed with what Kumar described as “huge disappointment among all those connected with football in Qatar” is growing anger at the lack of communication from the Qatar Football Association (QFA) about the failure.

The association did not respond to a request for comment, and it has been criticised for its silent stance as the national team’s hopes have faded.

Qatar’s football culture, or a perceived lack of it, has been the subject of international debate since December 2010, when the oil- and gas-rich Persian Gulf state was awarded the hosting rights over several more established bidders. But it is not the first country to face such criticism.

When the United States was awarded the rights to the 1994 World Cup, the decision was greeted with similar howls by some football purists outside North America. There were even rumours Fifa could change its mind.

But on Nov 19, 1989, a goal by midfielder Paul Caligiuri against Trinidad and Tobago sent the United States to the 1990 World Cup, and into a new era in its football history. The goal was called the shot heard round the world, and it began a run of seven consecutive World Cup appearances.

As Fifa brought its crown jewel to new continents in the decades that followed, every host avoided the ignominy of making its World Cup debut on home soil. South Korea was a regular in the tournament long before it hosted in 2002, and its co-host, Japan, made its debut in 1998. Even South Africa, the 2010 host, had been in the tournament twice before.

Before the April 2016 draw for the final round of qualification for Russia, Hassan al-Thawadi, head of the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, the Qatari body overseeing organisation of the 2022 World Cup, stressed how vital it was that the team qualified for Russia. “It is important that we are there,” he said at the time.

Yet Qatar started badly, with defeats in its first two qualifiers. With only the top two countries from the six-team group set to qualify automatically, Qatar fired its coach, Uruguayan Jose Daniel Carreo, in September and replaced him with his countryman, Jorge Fossati.

“It is very important to go to Russia,” said Fossati before his first task, a game against South Korea in October. “It is important for our players to play at the highest level as much as possible, and it is important for the confidence of the country as a football power.”

Yet a 3-2 loss to South Korea, a team seeking its ninth consecutive World Cup appearance, seemed to confirm that Qatar was not ready to overcome the powerhouses of Asian football in its attempt to qualify. A 1-0 win over Syria days later buoyed hopes briefly, but it was followed by a scoreless tie against China, another struggling team, in November.

Two defeats within five days in March — at home to Iran and Tuesday’s loss in Uzbekistan — have left Qatar at the bottom of its group, with only four points from seven games.

Fifa’s plan for an expanded 48-team World Cup in 2026 offers hope for the future as the proposed allotments include eight guaranteed spots for Asia, double the four it currently receives, but that plan offers scant consolation at the moment.

In an article for the Doha-based newspaper Al Watan last week, journalist Mohamed Al Jazar lamented that “nobody has come out to explain the reasons for this failure, no officials are telling us what they are planning to do about it”.

“Our message to the QFA,” Al Jazar pleaded, “is, please talk to us. Please tell us who is responsible for the lost dream.”

For some, the fault belongs to the players. After the 1-0 defeat to Iran on March 23, a young fan looked into the television cameras and complained that the players lacked passion because, as he claimed, none are Qatari.

The comment gained traction on social media, in part because of Qatar’s highly public efforts to groom young, foreign-born football talents alongside native players in its Aspire programme, but also because it had a hint of truth.

Six of the 11 players in Qatar’s starting lineup against Uzbekistan were born abroad, in countries as varied as Brazil, Uruguay, Cape Verde, Ghana and Kuwait. After playing for local clubs, all were naturalised under Fifa rules in an attempt to deepen the player pool in a country with a native population of about 300,000. But some critics have accused them of a lack of passion.

“Individual and collective technical ability are not enough if you don’t play for the badge,” veteran striker Meshal Abdullah wrote on Twitter after Tuesday’s loss.

Those feelings suggested that there may be public pressure for a more homegrown team to represent the country in 2022. With the likes of Akram Afif, who plays in the top Spanish league, and Abdelkarim Hassan, a star defender at 23, there may be enough Qatari-born talent to shine at a World Cup one day.

But now it will have to be the 2022 edition, rather than 2018.