The first time Qatar upset the international football community was not in 2010, when they won the right to host this World Cup.
No, the first incident happened six years beforehand, when Qatar offered citizenship to three Brazilian players who had never previously visited the country.
The most prominent was Ailton, who won the league with Werder Bremen that season, 2003-04, and also finished as the Bundesliga’s top goalscorer. He’d never been capped by the Selecao, but was desperate to play internationally, at one point floating the idea of becoming a naturalised German citizen.
He, along with brothers Dede and Leandro, both at Borussia Dortmund, travelled to Qatar to meet officials and discover how serious they were about the plan.
Ailton declined to comment when asked in 2004 about allegations he was offered around £1million ($1.2m) up front to take on Qatari citizenship, plus an annual salary of £650,000. He would receive full citizenship within a month, even if he continued to play his club football in Germany.
“Of course, money is important to me, but it was more important to fulfil this dream,” Ailton told DW-World.
This was new ground for football, but nothing new for Qatar.
They’d done the same thing with steeplechase runner Stephen Cherono, who previously competed for Kenya. He was offered significant financial security — $1,000 a month for the rest of his life — and changed his name to Saif Saaeed Shaheen upon the switch.
“My name? I didn’t choose it. They just gave it to me,” said Shaheen after a race in Zurich in 2003. “Do you like it?”
When he won gold at the 2003 World Championships in Paris, his elder brother Christopher Koskei — competing in the event for Kenya — walked off the track without congratulating him.
Qatar tried to bring that approach to football.
Qatar look all but certain to be eliminated from the World Cup at the group stage (Photo: Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images)
Ailton insisted he wasn’t breaking any FIFA regulations — and he was right. Therefore, an emergency FIFA meeting was called, and a ruling passed that required players to reside in a country for two years before switching nationalities.
Then-FIFA president Sepp Blatter — in hindsight, somewhat ironically — was cast as the saviour of international football for denying Qatar their dream. “Naturalisation that allows players with no obvious connection to the new country to play for that national team is not the aim and the objective of our statutes,” Blatter declared. “We have put an immediate stop to such practices.”
“If we had carried on down this road, there would be no more need for national teams,” said Germany coach Rudi Voller after Ailton’s switch was blocked. “It was not acceptable for a country to buy a squad.”
Ailton was so angered by the reaction from within Germany that he threatened to leave the country. Qatar were furious, saying the new ruling went against FIFA’s previous decisions, and blaming the media for whipping up a storm.
There have been further tweaks since. Now, for players wishing to switch nationality, they must have lived in the relevant country for five years (or three years before the age of 10). Interestingly, players must also “demonstrate that the move to the territory of the association was not for the purpose of participating for its representative teams”.
There have been several examples of this since, with notable cases including Argentina-born Mauro Camoranesi helping Italy to World Cup 2006 and Brazilian Marcos Senna playing a crucial role in Spain’s midfield at Euro 2008. Portugal have benefited from the likes of Deco, Pepe and Liedson switching nationality from Brazil to Portugal. All of which passed without too much comment.
And yet it’s still worth a recap on quite how multinational some modern World Cup sides are — and Qatar are the obvious example. Considering the Ailton case, many suspected Qatar would load up on Brazilians five years out. In the end, that wasn’t the case – perhaps because of that FIFA ruling about not moving to the country for the purpose of turning out for the national side. But Qatar’s 26-man squad features players from eight different foreign nations: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, France, Ghana, Iraq, Portugal and Sudan.
It’s worth clarifying that the vast majority of those foreign-born players have been in the country for over a decade, many since childhood. Their Aspire Academy has scouted and recruited young talent from other countries, through the Football Dreams project, officially a humantiarian project to lift children out of poverty. There is, of course, an upside for Qatar — the opportunity to turn these youngsters into future internationals.
But really, the nature of their squad is actually entirely representative of this nation. It is estimated that only around 12 per cent of the population of Qatar are actually Qatari, although acquiring citizenship is somewhat more difficult for ordinary workers.
In their 3-1 defeat to Senegal, Qatar faced a side who had even more players born abroad, although essentially it’s the reverse situation. Whereas Qatar’s foreign-born players qualify through residency, Senegal’s foreign-born players qualify because they were Senegalese nationals from birth
Nine of Senegal’s squad were born in France, while goalkeeper Seny Dieng was born in Switzerland. Ismail Jakobs, born in Germany and a regular in their U21 side last year, switched nationality so late that his place in this squad was uncertain on the eve of the tournament because of administrative problems processing his passport. Nicolas Jackson, from Gambia, qualifies because he was raised in Senegal.
Senegal are the reigning Africa Cup of Nations champions (Photo: Dan Mullan/Getty Images)
It’s sometimes assumed this has always been the case — Senegal’s famous win over France 20 years ago was cast as a victory for “France B”, perhaps as Patrick Vieira had chosen to play for France rather than the country of his birth. But in reality 21 of Senegal’s 23-man squad in 2002 were born in Senegal, and the two France-born players didn’t start a single game between them. Today, though, there are estimated to be over 120,000 Senegalese living in France.
Nationality can be an emotive issue, and a complex one when it comes to eligibility in international sport. But this is largely a reflection of these countries: there are a huge number of Senegalese nationals in France, and a huge number of foreign citizens in Qatar.
In all, that means players in these squads were born in 12 different nations: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, France, Germany, Ghana, Iraq, Portugal, Qatar, Switzerland, Senegal and Sudan. It’s a perfect reflection of the changing nature of the World Cup — it’s not merely that different teams hail from around the globe, but players within teams do too.
There are some remarkable stories in this World Cup. This contest came a day after Breel Embolo scored the winner for Switzerland against Cameroon, the country of his birth. He declined to celebrate, out of respect.
On Friday, USA left-back Antonee Robinson plays against the country of his birth, England, while team-mate Yunus Musah represented England at youth level, and also could have opted to play for Ghana or Italy.
It’s not impossible we could see a knockout meeting between brothers representing different sides, with Inaki Williams playing for Ghana and Neco Williams for Spain — although that’s nothing new, as Kevin-Prince and Jerome Boateng played one another in Ghana v Germany clashes in both 2010 and 2014.
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Qatar, meanwhile, are almost certainly out of this competition. It’s not impossible for sides to lose their first two matches and still qualify, but it depends on the group’s points finishing 9-3-3-3 and goal difference being in their favour. Denmark managed that at Euro 2020, but it’s desperately unlikely Qatar will do the same. It would require both Ecuador and Qatar to beat the Netherlands, for a start, and a massive goal difference swing too.
Ultimately this will be remembered, probably unsurprisingly, as the worst World Cup performance by a host nation. South Africa in 2010 were the only previous hosts to be eliminated in the group stage, but they at least started the tournament in brilliant style, with Siphiwe Tshabalala’s opener against Mexico, and rounded it off with a victory over France.
Qatar did get on the scoresheet here, when Mohammed Muntari’s second-half goal produced a genuine roar from around the Al Thumama Stadium. But it was around 25 per cent full by the final whistle, which prompted little applause for the hosts’ efforts, suggesting that while the Qataris are happy to cheer for these players, they’re not quite national heroes.
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(Top photo: Dan Mullan/Getty Images)
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