From our Special Envoy in Doha,

You only have to drive a little through the desert to realize the importance of construction in the Qatari landscape.

Cranes, concrete, buildings under construction, some left unfinished, some finished.

The emirate has even managed to build a world-class football team in just under two decades, although the performance of Felix Sanchez's men in the opening match of the 2022 World Cup (defeat 2-0 against Ecuador) evokes the bottom of the Ligue 2 table.



To the great regret of the Spaniard, who suspects his players of being eaten up by the stakes.

“Maybe the nerves betrayed us, we got off to a really bad start.

We were very imprecise technically, we never chained four passes.

Sanchez had the grace not to mention Al Sheeb's hazardous exits, failed checks in midfield and deep touches in the opponents' feet, all of which contributed to Qatar's early sinking.

And embarrass him.

By bowing from the start to his supposedly less good opponent, the host mortgages his chances of saving honor in a group which also includes the Netherlands and Senegal.

As if all the work done by Sanchez since his arrival at the Aspire Academy in 2006 had been for nothing.

Aspire and the Qatari Training Project

The Aspire Academy was founded in 2004 to identify and train future Qatari athletes.

Sport king in Qatar, football immediately took a privileged place there, so much so that Sanchez, trained as a coach at La Masia, was able to experiment as much as he wanted in this sports laboratory.

He also explains that he took advantage of the proximity of the players at the training center to hold a rhythm of two daily training sessions, which he has never seen done in Europe, except perhaps at Barça.

In order not to remain stuck at the same level, the Spaniard chose to follow his players.

In 2013, he took on the U19s of Qatar, which he led to the Asian title.

A feat he will repeat with the big boys in 2019. His team beat Japan in the final by conceding their only goal of the tournament, for 19 registered.

The stat is insane, and reflects the guy's game ideas.

Xavi: “His style is attacking, obviously, but he can adapt if he doesn't have the ball.

Defensively, he works well.

No naturalizations like in the hand

He works well, period.

Anyway, there was no other way to bring this small country to the international level.

The administrative route that led Qatar to the final of its Handball World Cup in 2015 – won by the Experts – was not valid in football.

FIFA has many faults, but we can recognize that it knows how to supervise the naturalization process.

We do not change sporting nationality in 3 years as in handball, and even less after having already worn the jersey of another nation.

Thus, only four of the 2019 Asian champions have been naturalized.

And if the country ended up resolving to bet also on the children of immigrants because of an unfavorable demography (only 300,000 “real” Qataris), the first desire was to find the highest level with an exclusively local population. .

Pierre Lechantre, Qatar coach at the beginning of the century quoted by

Le Monde

, summarizes the idea by recounting an exchange with a senior leader.

“I pointed out that we were limited by demographics, he replied: we want players with 100% Qatari blood.

»

In good memories of the 1981 Youth World Cup, where Qatar had taken out Brazil and England before failing against the overpowered Germany (4-0) in the final.

A date that has inevitably remained in local sports history.

It is unlikely that Félix Sanchez's men will repeat the feat of 41 years ago.

Two matches almost impossible to win await them and the exit door is already wide open.

Too bad, Qatar has learned to be patient with its football team (except for not leaving the stands half an hour from time in case of defeat).

An exception that contrasts with the "everything, immediately" on which the small emirate is built and its buildings that grow like palm trees in the middle of the desert.


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