Arab Cup: Qatar performances enthralls locals

Felix Sanchez looked incredibly relieved moments after his team had defeated the United Arab Emirates 5-0 in their Arab Cup quarterfinal. It was a sporting triumph in something of a local derby.

The sellout crowd of 63,000 packed into the Al Bayt Stadium in Al Khor almost had the place shaking with emotion. Back home in Spain, Qatar's national team coach might have celebrated such a victory with a glass of fine wine. But that wasn't possible here, as alcohol is strictly forbidden in Wahhabi Islam. 

For Qatar — and probably even more so for coach Sanchez — much more is on the line at this Arab Cup than simply how they fare in the tournament. After years of intense preparation, the team must now prove that it is close to being ready to host the 2022 World Cup. They need to show that they are good enough to hold their own on the pitch, that they won't be in danger of embarrassing the emirate when it hosts the world's best in 12 months' time. 

Spanish tutelage  

For Qatar's current national team, the World Cup project actually began with the construction of the Aspire Academy in Doha in 2004. At a cost of almost €2 billion ($2.5 billion), the world's most modern and largest high-performance football center was built to produce the players meant to shine at the 2022 World Cup. With 12 pitches and a stadium that holds 15,000 spectators, and spread over almost 250,000 square meters, it's one of the largest indoor sports facilities in the world.

Felix Sanchez came to Qatar at the age of 30 in 2006. Prior to that, he had worked at Barcelona's academy "La Masia." Sanchez took over Qatar's 1995-born crop of players, graduating with them from the junior level, going on to coach them as part of the under-19 national team, then the U20s, U23s, and finally, since 2017, the senior men's national team.

Talent imported from Africa  

What they quickly realized in the academy was that even the best training facilities in the world would not be enough to establish a competitive national team for a country with a population of just 2.5 million and no competitive league. Therefore, they adopted a two-pronged approach: They set up a scouting program to find talented young players from abroad, mainly from Africa, with the idea of eventually naturalizing the cream of the crop.

They also set up cooperation agreements with more than a dozen European professional clubs. This gave the best Qatari players the opportunity to move abroad temporarily to gain experience playing against better opposition than they would face at home.  Six Qatari internationals ended up at Belgian club KAS Eupen, which the Qataris took over completely. The highest hopes were soon played in Doha-born Akram Afif, whose father had once played for Somalia's national team.  

Surprise coup at the 2019 Asian Cup 

But success cannot simply be planned on the drawing board. Afif, who had already played in Spain for five years as a youth, was unable to establish himself either at Eupen or later at Spanish clubs Villarreal or Sporting Gijon. In the winter of 2018, disillusioned and now 22 years old, he moved back to his homeland to join Al Sadd in a league that wouldn't even measure up to the playing standard of Germany's second division. 

Nevertheless, the meticulous work of Sanchez and his men bore fruit: In 2019, the national team surprisingly won the Asian Championship in the United Arab Emirates, with Qatar beating South Korea and Japan, among others. Three-quarters of the squad had come through the Aspire Academy — with Akram Afif having emerged as their best player. 

Guest appearances at continental championships 

In subsequent friendly matches against European and South American teams, however, it became clear that there was still plenty of room for improvement. The team suffered two 4-0 defeats against Serbia and only managed draws against European minnows Luxembourg and Azerbaijan. 

In light of those results, Qatari football officials pulled out all the stops in the couple of years leading up to the 2022 World Cup. They managed to get the national team an invite from UEFA to play as a "phantom" team in one of the European World Cup qualifying groups — with their matches not counting in the table.  

Qatar also took part in the 2019 Copa America and the 2021 Gold Cup. Incidentally, both the South American federation CONMEBOL and CONCACAF of North and Central America have since benefited from sponsorship deals with Qatar Airways.  

Well-rehearsed

In the past three years alone, Qatar has participated in competitions in four of the six FIFA confederations. The national team has played 22 matches so far in 2021, and as many as 25 between December 2018 and December 2019. That kind of thing usually helps in preparation for a World Cup. Qatar will field a well-rehearsed team. 

Just how much of a difference this kind of preparation can make — at least in comparison to the competition in the region — has been evident at the Arab Cup. After falling 1-0 to Bahrain in their opening match, Sanchez's men beat Oman 2-1 and Iraq 3-0, before blowing out the surprisingly weak United Arab Emirates 5-0. 

So, with a year to go before they host the World Cup, Qatar seems to be on the right track — something that will please coach Sanchez in particular. Perhaps he does have a bottle of red wine tucked away somewhere in his cupboard at home. If so, his success so far is certainly worthy of a toast. 

This article was originally written in German.