Football: Money bridges gulf in standards

Moussa Wague of Senegal and Akram Afif of Qatar. Photo / Getty Images

Qatar will leave New Zealand today, but their footballing machine has made a huge impression.

It wasn't quite veni, vidi, vici as they depart the Under-20 World Cup with no points but their stay was a fascinating insight into their long-term strategic preparations.

The Gulf state leave no stone unturned. They travel with a huge entourage of coaching and support staff, and even covered the costs of the Five Nations series here before the tournament to ensure adequate preparation.

Nine of their starting XI against Portugal are based at two European clubs — KAS Eupen (Belgium) and LASK Linz (Austria) that are owned by Qatari interests — to give their players' easier access to Europe. There were also Africans on their roster, brought to the Qatar's Aspire Academy as teenagers and later naturalised.

Of course, it's all about the 2022 World Cup. There may be lingering controversy about how Qatar were awarded the tournament which was, at best, by highly-flawed decision-making and, at worst, perhaps something more sinister — but the country itself is completely focussed on developing the best team for that event.

"In 2022, Qatar will organise the World Cup and we want to compete in this competition," said defender Fahad Shanin. "We don't just want to organise and that's it. We want to get a result in this competition. We want to do something good."

There is definitely potential. Qatar qualified as Asian champions for this event, and their senior team have beaten Australia, Slovenia and Algeria in the last 12 months.

"The government in Qatar is concentrating on football a lot and giving us everything in terms of facilities, the best coaches to train," said captain Ahmad Moein. "we are playing a lot of tournaments and competitions against the best teams in the world.

"[And] from a young age we send players to Europe to be professionals because in Arab countries it is not the same level."

This under-20 side are seen as the key team, as players will be reaching their prime in 2022.

"I hope some of these players will play [in 2022] but, of course, we have a long way to go," said coach Felix Sanchez. "We don't have to make conclusions now about these players."

Qatar competed well against both Colombia and Portugal, exhibiting a neat passing game and some swift counter-attacks, before going down to Senegal yesterday.

"We have a Spanish coach and every team likes to play a Barca style — to pass and pass," said Moein. "But we are playing with what we have. We are not Brazil, not Argentina, not Portugal. We are Qatar and I hope we are improving day by day and in the future we will be better."

However, none wanted to comment on the current Fifa controversy and the possibility of the tournament being shifted.

"I am [a] player," said Shanin. "I just play. You can ask the managers. They will answer those things."