By Alaa Abdel-Ghani
As far as friendlies go, Qatar’s 2-1 defeat of Egypt was not out of the ordinary, except that Egypt, No 9 in the world, lost to a country seeded 114.
But Qatar is becoming used to causing upsets, beating much greater odds when it won the bid to host the 2022 World Cup. The first Middle East country to have a World Cup, Qatar is also the smallest, the hottest, the dullest, and the worst (in football) to be bestowed the honor.
Qatar beating out more experienced opposition the US, Australia, Japan and South Korea, each having one Word Cup or Summer Olympics under its belt, was a year-ender of truly seismic proportions, like when David felled Goliath, then kicked him in the teeth to make sure he was dead.
Since the Dec. 2 bombshell announcement, cynics still can’t believe it, insisting Qatar must have bribed its way to fame. They take Qatar’s massive oil wealth, add FIFA’s reputation for at times accepting plain, unmarked envelopes, and come up with ‘Fixed.’
They cite the seven FIFA officials out of the 24 who originally were to have voted for the World Cup hosts and who were implicated by the British media for financial irregularities. (Two were ultimately banned from voting but the remaining five were not).
However, since no one will probably ever be able to prove any wrongdoing, best to accept Qatar for what it is, not for what it might have done. It has the money to build anything FIFA so desires and recently showed us that money is no object when Barcelona ended their long-term stance of refusing commercial shirt sponsorship by signing a record £125 million deal with the Qatar Foundation which dug the Catalan giants out of a £369.5 million debt hole.
And why don’t we accept that FIFA was looking for new lands to spread the word and world of football, the way it picked Russia to host the 2018 World Cup, another first for East Europe?
Still, Qatar is not a bed of roses; there are cactuses along its World Cup way, the thorniest being the 50C scorching summer heat. The Qataris pledge to make all their stadiums indoors, with the structures not only air conditioned but streams of jet air shooting up from the fields and spectator seats. But even if the cold air ejects from our ears and nostrils, Qatar can’t AC its streets. As such, FIFA’s big bosses Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini are seriously thinking of making the Qatar World Cup in winter. With overcrowded league fixtures, especially in Europe, it doesn’t look possible right now, but FIFA has 12 years to think about it.
As for Dullsville, Qatar’s brand new modern art museum of exhibits showing nudity and an impromptu debate at a Blatter press conference concerning Qatar’s acceptance of gay fans are the beginnings of the state’s sexual awareness homecoming — and the start of drastic amendments to its culture and religious fabric. With the other headache of whether drinking alcohol in public will still be forbidden in 2022, the world is opening an early can of worms for this ultra-conservative Gulf country, but Qatar had better get used to it.
Surrounding countries should also be prepared for a cultural tectonic shift of their own should an offer come their way to host some of the games. Blatter’s revelation that Oman, Bahrain and Kuwait were “more than a little interested” in joining with Qatar to host some of the World Cup matches was more than a little surprising. It is an unprecedented request, coming after 2022 became a done deal involving just one country. At any rate, a decision would have to come first from Qatar and then from FIFA’s executive committee.
More to the point, this will not be a joint bid the way we know it. There could be more than two countries participating and an equal number of games will not be shared. Qatar will have the lion’s share and will serve to the rest the bones. Will Qatar’s neighbors accept to play second and perhaps third and even fourth fiddle?
We’re not so sure. A fair amount of envy courses the Arab Peninsula’s veins, else why would these neighbors want to share the spoils with Qatar? It looks like they simply do not want her to get all the credit and have the spotlight shine only on her.
A streak of jealousy might also have crossed Egypt’s relationship with Qatar. As amazingly successful Qatar’s World Cup was — it was close to garnering the 12 majority votes needed from the first round of voting — the comparison with Egypt’s zero number of votes when it bid for the 2010 World Cup is embarrassing.
That’s only partly the story. For years, there has existed a rift between Egypt and Qatar, opening with Qatar’s highly popular Al-Jazeera TV station which Egyptians believe purposely has a great time from its studios criticizing Egypt’s domestic, regional and international positions, when under Nasser Egypt was iconic and untouchable territory for other Arab countries. Then Qatar took a role in attempts to resolve thorny regional conflicts traditionally the preserve of Egypt, especially the situation in Gaza and Sudan. A few years back, Qatar also deported a number of Egyptian expatriates for reasons never made public.
But now we are friends, or at least not enemies, as attested by the friendly which was meant to celebrate Qatar’s World Cup win and to underline that one of Qatar’s pro-votes came from Cairo which has a seat on FIFA’s voting panel. Our friendship is so strong that we skipped Jordan to play instead in Doha. Petrodollars defeated the dinar.
Just to show there are no lingering hard feelings between Cairo and Doha, in the wake of last year’s ugly feud over World Cup qualifications, Egyptian and Algerian football officials finally buried the hatchet following a meeting organized by Qatari football chiefs in Doha on the friendly’s sidelines.
Tiger Woods’ return to public view, that he went winless on the PGA Tour for the first time in his career; the loss of his No. 1 ranking for the first time in years; and when he and Elin Nordegren divorced was the Associated Press’ top sports story of the year.
A World Cup of firsts which ended gloriously for Spain and for Africa was at No. 4 the only soccer story among the top 10.
Qatar was not on the list.
From the time it announced it was bidding for the biggest single sport event in the world, Qatar was fighting just to be taken seriously. From desert longshot to World Cup host, it made it and, along the way, made history.
Qatar’s Anas Mubarak (R) gets the ball as Mohammed Nagi Gedo of Egypt challenges him during their friendly football match in Doha on December 16, 2010. Qatar won 2-1. (AFP Photo/ STR)
