Dylan Bettencourt
For years, Qatar dreamed of hosting a Fifa World Cup, but there was an obstacle standing in their way: they didn’t have a team that was able to compete. So, to take care of that problem, they threw billions of dollars at it.
Hosting the World Cup guarantees automatic qualification but Qatar didn’t have a football team able to compete, so they built a football dome, hired an army of elite standard coaches from Europe and spent millions on an academy.
This plan was tried and tested in 2003 when Kenyan runner Stephen Cherono became a Qatari citizen in exchange for an alleged R16,000 a month for the rest of his life. The plan worked and the next year the Kenyan ran the fastest-ever steeplechase, a time that remains unbeaten to this day.
Football followed the same pattern and attempted to get talented players from around the world to become citizens of Qatar, starting with Brazilian trio Ailton, Dede and Leandro.
When the plan caught the attention of Fifa, they tightened the eligibility requirements for international players.
In 2005 the Aspire Academy was opened to prepare the nation to someday compete against the best countries in the world.
The academy created a scheme called Football Dreams where scouts were sent to Africa, South America and Asia in search of talent, a plan that reportedly cost R1.5 billion.
Between 2007 and 2014, 3.5 million male players from 17 different countries were screened by the academy. Each year 50 players were invited for a week-long trial, only the three best were picked for a final test at the academy.
At the end of the scheme, only around 20 players were selected for scholarships.
In 2019 Qatar played at the Asian Cup finals in the United Arab Emirates and after an impressive run to the final Qatar looked to win their first-ever trophy.
And that they did, beating Japan 3-1 in the final with a team that consisted of seven players coming from the Aspire Academy.
Seventeen of the 23 players in the squad for the event were muqimin, long-term residents of Qatar but are not citizens.
In December 2017, Qatar were ranked 102nd in the world by Fifa, now they find themselves in 51st spot.
As well as being carried by foreigners on the football field, it is migrant workers who have sacrificed their lives to build the stadiums across Qatar.
Adding to the reports of slave labour amongst the security personnel in Qatar, an alleged 6,500 migrant workers have lost their lives during construction as of February last year.
Their World Cup dream is set to come true this November.
Image source: @Forbes
