Qatar Preview, Part 1.

The FIFA decision to place the 2022 World Cup in Qatar should cause greater interest in the 2011 Asian Cup, to be played in the same Emirate. Still, this tournament will not be taking many of the current stars of European Leagues away from their day jobs, nor will it present many new future stars, and so much of the tournament will be ignored by the European press.

For me, it will be the third time I have been out to see the tournament. In the previous two, China 2004 and South East Asia 2007, I managed to stay away the whole three weeks, seeing both the start and completion of the competition. This time, I can only see the first week. Judging by the last two editions, there will be plenty of interesting football and no lack of controversy.

To start with Qatar, the host. I am sure that many people know little about this small emirate jutting out into the Gulf from the Arabian peninsula. To start with, the place is not as small as many may think. A land mass of 4,400 square miles means that it is a little over half the size of Wales. This is a good comparison, as the population is also just over half that of Wales. Of course, there are differences, the GDP of Qatar, boosted by oil revenues (and little else) is far in excess of that of Wales. It is this revenue that allows them to stage a World Cup, whereas they probably feel the £25 million per season in sponsorship to Barcelona is merely small change.

For the 2011 competition, five stadiums are being used – the largest is the Khalifa Stadium in Doha, which holds around 50,000. The stadium is scheduled to stage 7 games, which could all feature the home side, should they go through as group winners and proceed to the final. The Al-Gharafa stadium, also in Doha holds 25,000 and is used by two local sides, Umm-Salal and Al-Gharafa themselves. It will stage eight matches, six in the group stages. Also in Doha are two stadiums holding around 15,000 – the Qatar Sports Club stadium is used, naturally by Qatar Sports Club, and shared by Lekhwiya and lower division Al-Sailiya, while the Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium is the home of Al-Sadd. Qatar SC stages six group games and a knockout match. Al Sadd just three group games, a quarter-final and the third-fourth play off. Finally, Al-Rayyan is the only one being used that is outside the capital municipality (but not by far). This stadium will stage six group games. The official name of the stadium is Ahmed bin Ali, it is shared by Al-Rayyan and Al-Kharitiyat.

Qatar’s results in previous editions of the tournament have not been good, not even in 1988 when they again were the home nation. On that occasion, the 10 teams were arranged in two groups, with knock out rounds starting at the semi-final stage – Qatar won two, but also lost two of their games, and lost out on qualifying to South Korea and Iran. This time around they will be under the guidance of Bruno Metsu, the French manager who made his name by taking Senegal to the 2002 World Cup Quarter finals. In the last Asian Cup, Metsu was coaching the UAE, and while they were knocked out at the group stage, he became a Vietnamese national hero when the UAE won their last game to hand the home side a place in the quarter-finals. I expect the Qatar squad to be boosted by a number of naturalised players who are chosen from Africa, South America and from some or their Arab neighbours. Almost all the players for Qatar actually play club football within the Emirate, but one exception (and clearly one of their best hopes) is Hussein Yasser. Hussein’s father was an Egyptian coaching in Qatar at the time of his birth. He has been on the books of both Manchester United and Manchester City (without playing), but has European experience at AEL in Cyprus, Braga and Boavista in Portugal, and currently plays for Zamalek in Egypt.

In Group A with Qatar will be another “Gulf” nation, Kuwait. Kuwait have had a degree of success under the coaching of Serbian, Goran Tufegdzic. They are the current holders of the West Asian Football Federation title, held in Jordan in October, and more recently, the Gulf Cup when it was played in December in Yemen. In the first of these, they beat Iran in the final and in the second they beat Saudi Arabia with a single goal in extra time. They also defeated Qatar during the group stage. Kuwait have won the Asian Cup before, back in 1980 when they were also the hosts.

Kuwait qualified from a group including Australia, Oman and Indonesia, and started poorly by losing at home to Oman. Their second game was in Australia, but on a date when the Aussies could not call upon European based players – this may have been a factor in their 1-0 win. A second victory followed at home to Indonesia, after which they drew all their final three games to finish a point ahead of Oman. The final game was the return in Oman, with a crowd of 27,000 in Muscat. A win for Oman would have put them through, but the final result was 0-0.

Kuwait will be the final team to play the hosts in group games. Qatar’s opponent in the opening game will be Uzbekistan. The Uzbeks had a simple qualifying group, after India, who had been placed in the group won the AFC Challenge Cup in 2008 (which carried direct qualification), and pulled out of this alternative method of going through. This meant the Uzbeks were in a three team group, and the Malays were in the midst of a long run of poor form. Malaysia ended up losing all four of their games, while Uzbekistan and UAE each won the away match (both times 1-0) when the pair met. Most of the squad plays league football in Uzbekistan or other former Soviet Republics, which means their league seasons are well closed, and the team has had plenty of time to prepare and acclimatise. They recently drew 1-1 with Bahrain, a match played in Dubai, with Alexander Geynrikh of Pakhtakor scoring. One member of their squad, Jasur Hasanov plays club football for Lekhwiya in Qatar.

The fourth team in Group A is China. They also finished second in their qualifying group (to Syria), but qualification was never in doubt, with two wins over each of Vietnam and Lebanon. The Chinese have prepared with a series of uninspiring results (mainly wins) against second rate European teams in China. Latvia, Estonia and Macedonia being the last three to make the trip. Uruguay won 4-0 when they went to China in October. The Chinese will play holders Iraq in Doha before the tournament starts. They started the year with a moral boosting win in Tokyo in the East Asian Championship – which included a 3-0 win over South Korea, but this is not considered a big deal locally compared with the Asian and World Cups. Defeat to Japan in the 2004 Asian final still hurts in Beijing. Most Chinese national players now play in the Chinese League, which is reported to have improved recently (and to be less corrupt as well). The chief coach, Gao Hongbo was assistant to Arie Haan during the 2004 championship, and coached Changchun Yatai to the 2007 League title, (their only championship).

FIFA’s rankings place the Chinese at 87^th, Kuwait 102, Uzbekistan 109 and Qatar lowest in the group at 114. China should be able to get through to the knock stages, and I feel that home advantage may well be enough to allow Qatar to join them – but neither of the others will be easy to beat.