‘Undeserving to continent’s finest’ – The Maroons have helped Qatar prove critics wrong

When the 2022 World Cup hosting rights were won by Qatar, not only did it mean that the quadrennial footballing extravaganza was returning to Asia for only the second time ever but also that Qatar national team would make their World Cup bow.

The Maroons did have their critics who felt that Qatar did not have the footballing pedigree to qualify for the World Cup on their own and the hosting rights have just given them a free, undeserving ticket to the tournament.

From France (1998), Japan and South Korea (2002), Germany (2006), Brazil (2014) to Russia (2018) – the World Cup hosts from the last 21 years barring South Africa (2010) all had the kind of footballing pedigree that Qatar could never boast of. And it was something Qatar’s detractors always made a point of highlighting.

However, fast forward to 2019 and those voices are not to be heard anymore. The Maroons shocked a lot of people by winning the 2019 Asian Cup to lift the continental title at the expense of established giants like Australia, Iran, Japan, South Korea and more.

More than the fact that Qatar won it, the way it was done was more shocking to the onlookers. Qatar absolutely bulldozed their way through the tournament, beating the likes of Saudi Arabia, Iraq, South Korea, UAE and Japan in the final.

They won all their games and scored a whopping 18 goals in seven matches, while conceding just the solitary goal (Japan’s consolation in the final which finished 3-1). These are mind-boggling numbers!

There was no element of fortune behind those victories. It requires a well-drilled team oozing with ability and confidence to consistently pull off such results and Felix Sanchez Bas’ team were just that.

Then they went on to test themselves against the world’s elite in the 2019 Copa America. They played against Argentina, Colombia and Paraguay in Group B and came away with a point – a 2-2 draw against Paraguay. However, their performances against Argentina and Colombia were appreciated a lot.

Colombia needed an 86th-minute goal to beat them while Argentina toiled hard before Sergio Aguero made it 2-0 late on to help the Albiceleste progress.

And now, they have continued that form on to the 2022 World Cup and 2023 AFC Asian Cup joint qualifiers, hammering Afghanistan 6-0 in their group opener. The Maroons have well and truly established themselves as the continent’s finest. More importantly, they have made a loud and clear statement that they deserve a spot in the World Cup.

A lot of planning and execution has gone into lifting Qatar from a mediore Asian team to the very best. Qatar have invested shrewdly and heavily in the national team and it has worked. The exposure they have received in addition to world-class training facilities have also made their mark.

Moreover, a focus on moulding a group of youngsters after 2014 has helped them develop this crop of players. Qatar won the 2014 U20 Asian Championships, came third in the AFC U23 Championship in 2018 and made it to the 2015 FIFA U20 World Cup. And the current national team has a fair few players from these teams.

Make no mistake, Qatar’s spot in the 2022 World Cup is not complimentary by any means. They are there on merit.