Qatar at the FIFA World Cup

Summary

Prior to qualifying as host nation, Qatar had never qualified for the FIFA World Cup since the country's independence in 1971. While Qatar has been a regular participant in the continental AFC Asian Cup, the national side has always fallen short in the final stage of World Cup campaigns. By hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup and its failure to qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup held in Russia, Qatar became the only nation to play in World Cup without qualifying for it and the second nation after Italy (back in 1934) to qualifying for the World Cup as hosts after being absent in all previous World Cup before.[1]

In 2017, the Qatari government has introduced reforms aimed at improving conditions for migrant workers. In January 2022, FIFA president Gianni Infantino acknowledged the country's amendments in work legislation, protection of workers and minimum wage while addressing more alterations to be made.[2]FIFA President Gianni Infantino has defended Qatar's decision to host the tournament. Others have asserted that Qatar has a better human rights record than Russia and China, which were subjected to less harsh criticism for the same problems when hosting important athletic events in the years before the tournament.

According to Sharan Burrow, general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation, prior to the tournament, "the new Kafala system tranche of law will put an end to Kafala and establish a contemporary industrial relations system."

Qatar's national team showed some improvement in their performance since the country was awarded the tournament, including winning the 2019 AFC Asian Cup,[3] and in 2019 Copa América drew against former champions and World Cup quarter-finalists Paraguay with 2-2.[4]

At rank 50, Qatar entered the tournament as the third lowest ranked team of the total 32; placing higher only above Saudi Arabia and Ghana.[5] The nation performed poorly and set some upsetting records among host nations in the process. Qatar became the first host nation to lose not only its opening match, but also all three of its matches. Upon losing the second match against Senegal with a score of 3-1, Qatar became the first host nation to be eliminated from the tournament in two matches after the Netherlands later on drew with Ecuador (putting both with four points, Senegal with three and Qatar with zero).[6] Qatar also finished last in their group by failing to secure any point, making them the first host nation to have 0 points at the end of the group stage.[7] The nation thereby became the worst performing host nation in the history of the tournament, overtaking South Africa, who had finished third in their group with 4 points and were eliminated based on goal difference.[8]

FIFA World Cup record edit

FIFA World Cup FIFA World Cup qualification
Year Result Position Pld W D* L GF GA Pld W D L GF GA
  1930 Did not enter Did not enter
  1934
  1938
  1950
  1954
  1958
  1962
  1966
  1970
  1974 Withdrew Withdrew
  1978 Did not qualify 4 1 0 3 3 9
  1982 4 2 0 2 5 3
  1986 4 2 0 2 6 3
  1990 11 4 6 1 12 8
  1994 8 5 1 2 22 8
  1998 11 6 1 4 21 10
    2002 14 7 4 3 24 13
  2006 6 3 0 3 16 8
  2010 16 6 4 6 16 20
  2014 14 5 5 4 18 14
  2018 16 9 1 6 35 14
  2022 Group stage 32nd 3 0 0 3 1 7 Qualified as hosts
      2026 To be determined To be determined
      2030
  2034
Total Group stage 1/25 3 0 0 3 1 7 108 50 22 36 178 110

By match edit

World Cup Round Opponent Score Result Venue Qatar scorers
2022 Group stage   Ecuador 0–2 L Al Khor
  Senegal 1–3 L Doha M. Muntari
  Netherlands 0–2 L Al Khor

Qatar 2022 edit

Group stage edit

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1   Netherlands 3 2 1 0 5 1 +4 7 Advanced to knockout stage
2   Senegal 3 2 0 1 5 4 +1 6
3   Ecuador 3 1 1 1 4 3 +1 4
4   Qatar (H) 3 0 0 3 1 7 −6 0
Source: FIFA
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers
(H) Hosts
Qatar  0–2  Ecuador
Report
  • Valencia   16' (pen.), 31'
Attendance: 67,372

Qatar  1–3  Senegal
Report
Attendance: 41,797

Netherlands  2–0  Qatar
Report
Attendance: 66,784

Record players edit

Matches edit

Rank Player Matches World Cups
1 Boualem Khoukhi 3 2022
Abdelkarim Hassan 3 2022
Ró-Ró 3 2022
Homam Ahmed 3 2022
Hassan Al-Haydos 3 2022
Karim Boudiaf 3 2022
Abdulaziz Hatem 3 2022
Almoez Ali 3 2022
Akram Afif 3 2022
Mohammed Muntari 3 2022

Top goalscorers edit

Rank Player Goals World Cups
1 Mohammed Muntari 1 2022

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ Montague, James (October 9, 2017). "Qatar Has a World Cup Date. It Still Needs a World-Class Team". The New York Times.
  2. ^ "FIFA chief Infantino lauds Qatar's labour reforms". ESPN.com. 2022-03-16. Retrieved 2022-04-07.
  3. ^ "What the Asian Cup win means for Qatar, host of 2022 World Cup". www.aljazeera.com.
  4. ^ "Qatar impressive performance facing Paraguay in Copa America 2019". Thể thao 247. 17 June 2019.
  5. ^ Thomas, Joshua (4 December 2022). "FIFA rankings for all 32 World Cup teams: How are they calculated and when are they updated?". The Sporting News. Retrieved 4 December 2022.
  6. ^ "Qatar creates embarrassing record, becomes first host nation to get knocked out of FIFA WC after two matches". Times Now News. 26 November 2022. Retrieved 4 December 2022.
  7. ^ "Qatar sets embarrassing record, becomes first host nation in history to finish FIFA WC campaign with 0 points". Times Now News. 30 November 2022. Retrieved 4 December 2022.
  8. ^ Brown, Luke (25 November 2022). "Qatar lose again — but has a host nation ever been knocked out in the World Cup group stage?". The Athletic. Retrieved 4 December 2022.