The recent international window all but sealed the hopes of Qatar making their world cup debut in Russia next year. Sucessive 1-0 defeats to Iran and then Uzbekistan leaves the maroons bottom of their world cup group with a very remote opportunity of making the play-offs. Automatic qualification is mathematically beyond them after the latest results.
Their impending elimination will mean Qatar in 2022 will be the first world cup hosts to have never qualified prior to hosting. There was genuine hope in the country that they had a decent chance of making it to Russia. The ease of which they qualified through round three of the Asian world cup qualifiers only fuelled those hopes.
Three defeats from their opening three games in the final group stage was just making the task near on impossible to recover. Uruguayan Jorge Fossati was drafted in as manager at this stage to try and rescue a campaign that was unravelling at an alarming rate. A 1-0 win at home to Syria at least got them off the foot of the group. A 2-1 victory over an experimental Russia in a November friendly seemed to restore some confidence. A game that saw them fall behind to an early Aleksander Kokorin penalty was rescued when Boualem Khouki converted a penalty of his own. Karim Boudiaf's second half strike being enough after Kokoron missed a late penalty.
Two decent results that were undone by a largely frustrating 0-0 stalemate away in China. A result that suited neither side that were attempting to rescue fading world cup hopes. Since that November qualifier, two very underwhelming results in friendlies against Moldova and Azerbaijan followed. Then came this international window of two further defeats.
At the time of writing, Fossati is still in charge and in defence of the Uruguayan it was an uphill task to rescue the campaign after that nightmare start. If anything this campaign has only highlighted just how short the team is of making any inroads for qualification, under the current format. The positives for Qatar are that, in theory at least, qualification for future world cups get easier. January's announcement of a forty-eight team world cup from 2026 was good news for Asia and the likes of Qatar but a lot of work is still required to ensure the team is of the required standard to qualify.
How they go about obtaining that standard is anyone's guess. Their favoured approach of using naturalized players from the domestic league has thus far fallen terribly short. It is also a strategy heavily critised by local media and fans with a 'lack of passion' being branded about recently.
The money the country has poured into youth developement programmes is yet to unearth a wealth of talent, if you excuse the pun. Young attacker Akram Afif is the first Qatari to play in La Liga with Sporting Gijón but with their home world cup less than six years away, a few more players like Afif will need to be developed.
Authorities in Qatar and the football association will be looking to make an impact at their home world cup but the present campaign doesn't bode well for those plans. Drawing with China at this moment in time is where Qatar are at in Asia. Their failure to qualify for 2018 could be a blessing in disguise to give them a reality check but at least they'll be at the next one.
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