Slowly and steadily, Qatar have been making their presence felt on the international sports scene.
And it’s no more limited to organising world-class events; Qatar are showing their prowess on the field too.
After their best-ever showing at the just-concluded Asian Games in Korea, where Qatari athletes won 10 gold medals, the country has now set their target on the ‘beautiful game’.
For the first time in 33 years, the Qatar team has qualified for the FIFA under-20 World Cup, to be held in New Zealand next year. Although they played the event in 1995, that was because they were the host team.
In 1981, the last time Qatar made it through the qualifying stages, they reached the finals but lost 4-0 to West Germany.
The director general of Qatar’s Aspire Academy, the centre of the country’s football training programme, said the youth team had much more ahead of it.
“What everyone has seen from this team is just the start of what it is going to achieve in the future for Qatari football,” Ivan Bravo said.
“This wasn’t a stroke of luck or an
accident. It’s the result of work and high-level coordination between Aspire, the Qatari Football Union and local clubs,” Bravo added.
The 2015 qualification came courtesy their 4-2 victory over China in the quarter-finals of the Asian Football Confederation’s under-19 championship. That achievement was topped on Monday when they beat host nation Myanmar 3-2 to set up a final against North Korea, to be played tomorrow.
In the initial four matches, Qatar scored the most goals of any team--10 in total--while conceding only four, a defensive achievement beaten only by Myanmar.
Qatar have been investing heavily in sport, as seen most notably in their winning bid to host the 2022 World Cup. But till now they were not that well known for their prowess on the football field. And with an eye on 2022, they hope to make giant strides on the pitch with their youth teams.
Bravo thanked the clubs in particular for their co-operation in releasing players to follow the intensive year-long programme put in place by Aspire. “That cooperation enabled us to produce a team of this high standard who have pleased everyone without exception,” he said.
The programme, Bravo said, involved sending talented young players to Europe for a year to develop skills and experience and get used to playing in different climates. The programme was based on progress in four aspects: mental preparation, self-confidence, physical structure, and strength of personality, he added.
The achievement of the 24-strong squad, all of them Qataris, was well deserved and “thrills all Qataris,”
Bravo added.
