Qatar: Asian Cup Champions & Road to 2022

On Friday, Qatar beat Japan 3-1 in the Final of the Asian Cup in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This is the first time Qatar has won the competition as they are building their reputation in the sport with the 2022 FIFA World Cup on home soil coming up. Celebrations erupted across the country, particularly in the capital Doha, where thousands watched the game as fans from Qatar, were barred from coming to the Emirates with a political blockade between Qatar, the UAE, Egypt and Saudi Arabia that has been going on for over a year and showed no signs of slowing down when Qatar beat the UAE in the semifinals with fans throwing objects at the Qatari players when they celebrated and the playing down of the victory by the media in those countries.

Qatar is a small but wealthy nation in the Arabian Gulf that doesn't really have any international experience in the sport with their rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran probably the strongest teams in the Gulf region with World Cup experience and success in the Asian Cup as Qatar have never qualified for the World Cup, finishing bottom of their group in the third round of qualifiers for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. However, Qatar shocked the world in 2010 when it won the rights to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup becoming the first Arabian nation to host the tournament. This brought a lot of controversy from the change of schedule to November/December and the treatment and living conditions of workers constructing the stadiums and architecture for 2022.

However, Qatar has already stamped their mark in the game since 2010 when the Qatari Sports Investment (QSi) headed by Nasser Al-Khelaifi brought Ligue 1 side Paris Saint-Germain in 2011, becoming one of the most popular sides in Europe and changing the football landscape when they signed Neymar for a world-record fee of €220 million in the summer of 2017. Companies from Qatar like Qatar Airways have already earned sponsorship deals with FIFA and COMMEBOL including football sides like Paris Saint-Germain, Barcelona and Bayern Munich.

So Qatar has been doing a lot in terms of their soft power in the game but they also want success with the Qatari National Team in the buildup to 2022 and their Asian Cup victory is a sign for them that they wouldn't be just hosts of the tournament in 2022. A large chunk of the team came from the Aspire Academy to build a team of Qatari instead of ex-pats, who are over 88% of the country's population, to bring a natural attachment to the nation. They will be playing in Copa America this year for more experience but their victory is a success for their investment in the game and hopes this will not be a fluke in their build for the World Cup in 2022.