SANTA CLARA – Qatar were the worst team at their own World Cup, possessing the poorest goal difference of the teams that lost every match. They have avoided that feat already. In the end 100 or so yards away from goalscorer Boualem Khoukhi, several hundred supporters in national dress thrashed up and down. Many neutrals had already left, desperate to beat the famous post-match traffic. That goal was for the real ones.
For Qatar, this was a match of two distinct hypocrisies. When they were awarded the 2022 tournament, Fifa’s oft-repeated claim was their wish to grow the game globally and facilitate the development of new footballing powers. What better way to do that than by hosting the tournament?
Which, quite frankly, has been proven hogwash. The Qatari Stars League is the natural home of a few players you’ve not thought about in a couple of years – Roberto Firmino, Pablo Sarabia, Marco Verratti, Aleksandar Mitrovic – and has been surpassed for gold-plating by Saudi Arabia.
The national team has declined badly since winning the Asian Cup in 2023. In their last six matches before this tournament, Qatar lost four (Ireland, Tunisia, Palestine, Zimbabwe) and drew two (Syria and El Salvador). They scored two goals in those six games.
Qatar FA chief Mansoor Mohammed Al Ansari poses with Fifa’s Gianni Infantino (Photo: Getty)Even qualifying for this World Cup was a struggle. Qatar lost half of their 10 matches in the second phase, finishing behind Uzbekistan, Iran and United Arab Emirates. Outside Qatar they were appalling, drawing in North Korea and losing 3-1 in Kyrgyzstan. In the crucial fourth round, matches were mysteriously changed from neutral venues to being hosted in Qatar.
Qatar’s Supreme Committee might not care so much. Their golden child, Paris Saint-Germain, have become the ninth club in history to defend their European Cup; Nasser El-Khelaifi lifted the trophy himself. Perhaps that is what Fifa meant by “growing the game” – paying ageing footballers lots of money and owning the club that dominates Europe while the national team stumbles and stutters?
That is why Khoukhi’s goal matters: it becomes an antidote to that criticism. At the end of the game, as Switzerland’s players sloped off the pitch in embarrassment, the entire Qatar squad and coaching staff posed for a group photo in front of supporters waving flags. There may be little lasting legacy yet but a first World Cup point can become an embryo.
Qatar players celebrate in front of their fans (Photo: Getty)The other hypocrisy makes Qatar the accuser, not accused. Speaking to supporters outside Levi’s Stadium before kick-off, several wanted to make a point: where is the criticism here? Why the double standards? They believe that their own nation suffered stinging censure for several years that hasn’t come the way of the USA.
And when that criticism has been delivered, the US have largely avoided having to account for themselves. “Western exceptionalism” was one pointed comment. The conversation was good-natured, but it’s clear that bitterness lingers.
There is some merit to their argument. Never before has a World Cup host engaged in war with a competing nation during the tournament. Never before has a host country leader described nations with representative referees as “shitholes” and then a referee from one of those countries being blocked from entering that host country. “Imagine if this was Qatar,” is their point.
That said, there are clear differences. In Qatar, the principal point of concern was the kafala system of labour that breached the human rights of migrant workers. Many worked 12-hour days in extreme heat out of doors, housed in squalid, cramped, labour camps thousands of miles from home in a desperate attempt to provide for their families. They were encouraged to take on debt to earn low wages and had very little course of due process if wages were not forthcoming or conditions worsened. Their rights were signed away to Qatari companies.
And whilst there is state-by-state variation on the treatment of LGBT+ communities, homosexuality is not explicitly illegal in any part of the US as it is in Qatar, where same-sex sexual acts are criminalised.
I wonder if the other answer surrounds the concept of “sportswashing”, a term that has applied throughout the World Cup’s history – 1938, 1978 and 2018 in particular – but went stratospheric in the buildup up Qatar 2022. The accusation (with overwhelming evidence) was that Qatar were using their host status to forge a reputation that distracted from their human rights breaches.
Here, sportswashing doesn’t really apply because there is a blatancy and lack of apology to everything the Trump administration does. He will say that he wouldn’t pay the ticket prices in New York City. He will tell journalists that the Iranian team probably shouldn’t come to the US. He will offend countries on a regular basis.
The lack of apology undercuts hope of accountability. At previous tournaments, the World Cup created a Potemkin village, a grand distraction. Trump is not attempting a distraction. You cannot embarrass him and you cannot shame him.
It leaves Qataris feeling resentful on two fronts. They waited for a World Cup and the legacy has largely been lost. They feel victimised by perceived imbalance in the scrutiny over two controversial World Cup hosts. At least they will always have Santa Clara. In the press centre after full-time, journalists were watching the equaliser on a regular loop. We have our first World Cup upset.
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