Qatar national football team

Qatar
Nickname(s)	Annabi (The Maroon)
Association	Qatar Football Association
Confederation	AFC (Asia)
Head coach	Bruno Metsu
Home stadium	Khalifa International Stadium, Jassim bin Hamad Stadium
FIFA code	QAT
FIFA ranking	78
Highest FIFA ranking	51 (August 1993)
Lowest FIFA ranking	107 (December 1999)
Elo ranking	76
	Home colours
	Away colours
First international
	Bahrain 2 - 1 Qatar ; (Bahrain; March 27, 1970)
Biggest win
	Qatar 8 - 0 Afghanistan ; (China; September 13, 1984); Qatar 8 - 0 Lebanon ; (Qatar; March 27, 1985)
Biggest defeat
	Kuwait 9 - 0 Qatar ; (Kuwait; Date Unknown, 1973)
AFC Asian Cup
Appearances	7 (First in 1980)
Best result	Quarterfinals, 2000

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The Qatar national football team is the national team of Qatar and is controlled by the Qatar Football Association. Despite an estimated population of 1.3 million, Qatar remains one of Asian football's enigmas, particular at the youth level.

[edit] History & Overview

Football was brought to Qatar in the 1940s and 50s by oil workers. Soon after the formation of the Qatar Football Association in 1970, the national team played its first match against Bahrain. Qatar has long been the continent's under-achievers, and the fact remains that they have rarely made it past the group stage in continental championships and have never represented Asia in a FIFA World Cup. However the tiny Gulf country, where the foreign working forces outnumber the local inhabitants, has been an unpredictable quantity, especially in youth competitions. They advanced to the final of the 1981 FIFA World Youth Championship, losing to the then West Germany. They qualified for the FIFA event after finishing second in the AFC Youth Championship, losing to Korea Republic in the final. Then again, in 1990, Qatar finished fourth in the FIFA U-17 World Cup and prior to qualifying for the championship, finished as champions in the AFC U-17 Championship in the same year.

In the AFC U-17 Championship, Qatar finished as runner up at least five times in 1984, 1986, 1992, 1994 and 1998.

At the senior level, Qatar had won the Gulf Cup twice in 2004 and 1992. On both these occasions, Qatar was the host. The national senior team has also qualified for the Asian Cup finals, at least eight times in 1980, 1984, 1988, 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2007.

Qatar made their name as the darkest horses in the Asian Zone's final qualifying round for France 1998 when they beat the likes of China and Iran to enter the last match against Saudi Arabia needing just a point to book an automatic qualifying place. However, just one match away from their first-ever place at the FIFA World Cup, they lost out as the Saudis went through 1-0.

They made it to the final qualifying round again four years later, but were totally outpaced by Bora Milutinovic's China team, who topped the section to progress to their first FIFA World Cup. Frenchman Philippe Troussier took the reigns after Korea/Japan 2002 and he injected some new blood into the side. Understandably, it took time for the inexperienced new-look team to develop into a winning unit, with failures coming in both the 2004 Asian Cup and the qualifying campaign for Germany 2006.

Though Troussier was sacked after the disappointing World Cup qualifying campaign, the team that he formed was to be the backbone of the team that won the Gulf Cup in 2004 and the Asian Games gold in 2006 under the guidance of Dzemaluddin Musovic.

Bosnian Musovic stepped down in the wake of Qatar's disappointing campaign in the recent AFC Asian Cup 2007, where they crashed out after the group stage with two points from three matches. The job of coaching the under-performing team then fell to Uruguayan Jorge Fossati, who faces the hard task of leading the team to 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.

In order to sustain their success, the Qataris have once again turned their attention to youth development, particularly through the ASPIRE Academy for Sports Excellence which was launched in September 2004.

Qatars football team has been accused of offering illegal immigrants a chance to play for them; this has been a awkward choice in the Asian people views since it's not fair to the other teams who cannot afford to buy illegal immigrants

[edit] World Cup record

1930 to 1974 - Did not enter
1978 to 2006 - Did not qualify
2010 - Currently reached fourth round of Asian qualifying [1]

[edit] Asian Cup record

1956 to 1972 - Did not enter
1976 - Did not qualify
1980 to 1992 - Round 1
1996 - Did not qualify
2000 - Quarterfinals
2004 to 2007 - Round 1
2011 - Qualified

[edit] West Asian Football Federation Championship

2008 - Semi-Finalist

[edit] Group 1

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Australia	6	3	1	2	7	3	+4	10
Qatar	6	3	1	2	5	6	−1	10
Iraq	6	2	1	3	4	6	−2	7
China PR	6	1	3	2	3	4	−1	6


Australia	–	0 – 1	1 – 0	3 – 0
China PR	0 – 0	–	1 – 2	0 – 1
Iraq	1 – 0	1 – 1	–	0 – 1
Qatar	1 – 3	0 – 0	2 – 0	–

In the next stage of 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification Qatar will play in Group A. ^[1]

[edit] Group B

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Australia	3	3	0	0	6	0	+6	9
Japan	3	2	1	0	7	3	+4	7
Qatar	4	1	1	2	4	8	−4	4
Bahrain	3	0	1	2	3	5	−2	1
Uzbekistan	3	0	1	2	1	5	−4	1


Australia	–	10 Jun	17 Jun	4 – 0	1 Apr
Bahrain	0 – 1	–	2 – 3	1 Apr	17 Jun
Japan	11 Feb	28 Mar	–	10 Jun	1 – 1
Qatar	6 Jun	1 – 1	0 – 3	–	3 – 0
Uzbekistan	0 – 1	11 Feb	6 Jun	28 Mar	–

[edit] Notable Players

#	Name	Career
1	Mansour Muftah	1976 - ****
2	Hussain Yasser	2001 - present
3	Mubarak Mustafa	1994 - 2006
4	Ibrahim Khalfan	1980's - ****
5	Sayed Ali Bechir	2004- present
6	Waleed Jassim	2004 -Present
7	Khalfan Ibrahim	2006 -Present
8	Sebastián Soria	2006 -Present
9	Jafal Rashed Al-Kuwari	2000 -2002
10	A'adel Khames	1980's -****
11	Mohammed Al-eanizi	1996 -2004
12	Mahmoud Soufi	1989 -1999
13	Khalid Salman	1980's -****
14	Khalid Ballan	1980's -****
15	Mohammed Diham	1980's -****
16	Mohammed al-Ammari	1980's -****
17	Ali Zaed	1980's-****

[edit] Foreigners on the Qatar Team

Main article: List of Asian footballers with foreign heritage#Qatar

Because of its small population Qatar has included number of foreign players who have played in Qatar in the past few years, the squad is made up of Arab, South American and African players. Most of them born and brought up in Qatar in early ages. The following list is of some of the foreigners players who play on the Qatar team.

Notable Foreigners

[edit] Current Squad

The following players were called up for the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification against Japan on 19 November 2008.

No.	Pos.	Player	DoB (Age)	Caps	Goals	Club
1	GK	Mohamed Saqr	17 May 1981			Al-Sadd
2	MF	Mesaad Al-Hamad	11 February 1986			Al-Sadd
3	GK	Abdulaziz Ali	5 June 1980			Al-Gharrafa
4	DF	Ibrahim Majid	12 May 1990			Al-Sadd
5	MF	Majdi Siddiq	3 September 1985			Al-Khor
6	FW	Meshal Abdullah	23 April 1984			Al-Siliya
7	FW	Yusef Ahmed	14 October 1988			Al-Sadd
8	MF	Saad Al-Shammari	6 August 1980			Al-Gharrafa
9	FW	Sayed Ali Bechir	6 September 1982			Al-Arabi
10	MF	Abdurabb Al Yazeedi	30 October 1988			Al-Sadd
11	MF	Fábio César	February 24, 1979			Umm-Salal
12	MF	Magid Mohamed	1 October 1985			Al-Sadd
13		Mubarak Mustafa
14	FW	Khalfan Ibrahim	18 February 1988	47	16	Al-Sadd
15	MF	Talal Al-Bloushi	22 May 1986			Al-Sadd
16	MF	Bilal Abdulrahman	17 November 1983			Al-Shamal
17		Hamid Asmael
18	FW	Sebastián Soria	8 November 1983		9	Qatar SC
	MF	Hussain Yasser	9 January 1984			Al-Ahly
	FW	Hassan Al Haidos	12 December 1990			Al-Sadd
	FW	Mohammed Gulam	8 November 1980			Al-Sadd
	MF	Wesam Rizik	5 February 1981			Al-Sadd

[edit] Recent Call Ups

No.	Pos.	Player	DoB (Age)	Goals	Club
	DF	Bilal Mohammed	2 June 1986		Al-Gharrafa (Friendly v. South Korea, 14 November)
	FW	Adel Lamy	13 November 1985		Al-Rayyan (Friendly v. South Korea, 14 November)
	DF	Marcone Amaral	5 April 1978		Al-Gharrafa (Friendly v. Iran, 9 November)
1	GK	Qasem Burhan	15 December 1985		Al-Gharrafa (WCQ v. Australia, 15 October)
4	DF	Ibrahim Al Ghanim	27 June 1983		Al-Arabi (WCQ v. Australia, 15 October)
6	DF	Abdullah Koni	19 July 1979		Al-Sadd (WCQ v. Australia, 15 October)
9	DF	Meshal Mubarak	25 February 1982		Qatar SC (WCQ v. Australia, 15 October)
13	DF	Mustafa Abdullah	2 January 1984		Al-Gharrafa (WCQ v. Australia, 15 October)
17	MF	Younes Ali Rahmati	3 January 1983		Al-Rayyan (WCQ v. Australia, 15 October)
13	DF	Abdulrahman Mesbeh	7 January 1984		Al-Rayyan (WCQ v. Uzbekistan, September 6)
	FW	Ali Afif	20 January 1988		Al-Sadd (Friendly v. North Korea, August 24)
2	GK	Rajab Hamza	16 October 1986		Al-Ahli (v. Australia on June 14)
10	FW	Márcio Emerson Passos¹	6 December 1978		Al-Sadd (v. Iraq on March 26)
7	DF	Ali Nasser	16 May 1986		Al-Sadd (v. Australia on February 6)
10	FW	Waleed Jassem	2 August 1986	14	Al Rayyan (v. Australia on February 6)
1	GK	Hussain Al Romaihi	12 September 1974		Qatar SC (v. Sri Lanka on October 28 2007)
2	DF	Selman Al Meamari	27 August 1980		Al-Rayyan (v. Sri Lanka on October 28 2007)
10	FW	Mirghani Babiker			Al-Wakra (v. Sri Lanka on October 28 2007)
11	FW	Waleed Hamza Rasoul	7 September 1982		Al-Arabi (v. Sri Lanka on October 28 2007)
13	MF	Waleed Muhyideen Ahmed	22 May 1982		Al-Khor (v. Sri Lanka on October 28 2007)
14		Hamed Shami Zaher			Al-Gharrafa (v. Sri Lanka on October 28 2007)
5	DF	Ahmad Shahi			Al-Gharrafa (v. Sri Lanka on October 21 2007)
6	DF	Mugib Gamer			Al-Siliya (v. Sri Lanka on October 21 2007)
7	MF	Mojtaba Jafar	12 August 1981		Al-Arabi (v. Sri Lanka on October 21 2007)
16	MF	Waheed Mohammed Taher			Al-Siliya (v. Sri Lanka on October 21 2007)

¹ Ruled to be ineligible to compete for Qatar having represented Brazil at youth level ^[2]

[edit] References

^ "FWCQ fourth round draw mechanics", The-AFC.com (2008-06-12). Retrieved on 13 June 2008.
^ FIFA reject calls to kick out Qatar FIFA; 24 June 2008

[edit] External links

[0] "FWCQ fourth round draw mechanics", The-AFC.com (2008-06-12). Retrieved on 13 June 2008.

[1] FIFA reject calls to kick out Qatar FIFA; 24 June 2008

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