Millhouse

12 or 13 different nationalities in total - The UAE are (rightly) complaining that they fielded a non-compliant team.

Yusuf Ahmed (Somalia).
Lacoumet Amin (France).
Sebastian Soria (Uruguay).
Pedro Miguel (Portugal).
Mohamed Kasola (Senegal).
Khalifa Abu Bakr(Cameroon).
Ibrahim Magid(Palestine).
Ali Asad (Iraq).
Ahmed Yasser (Egypt).
Ahmed Abdel Maqsood (Egypt).
Ali Afif (Yemen).
Akram Afif (Yemen).
Karim Boudaif (Algeria).
Bualem Khoukhi (Algeria).
Ismail Mohamed (Sudan).
Moiz Ali (Sudan).
Abdul Kareem Hassan (Sudan).
Mahdi Ali (Sudan).
Abdul Aziz Hatem (Sudan).
Mohamed Musa (Sudan).

fezzer

Not quite true. Under current FIFA rules (tighened up in 2004 following Qatar and Togo taking the piss) you either have to be born in the country, have parents or grandparents from the country, or have lived there continuously for five years once you turn 18. The organisers of the championship dismissed the UAE's claim that two members of the squad didn't meet these requirements: UAE FA protest dismissed

Here's Qatar's AFC squad. The significant majority were born in Qatar:

Saad Al Sheeb - Born in Qatar
Ró-Ró - Portugese, moved to Qatar 2011
Abdelkarim Hassan - Born in Qatar
Tarek Salman - Born in Qatar
Ahmed Fatehi - Born in Qatar
Abdulaziz Hatem - Born in Qatar
Ahmed Alaaeldin - Egyptian, moved to Qatar 2010
Hamid Ismail - Born in Qatar
Khaled Mohammed - Born in Qatar
Hassan Al-Haydos - Born in Qatar
Akram Afif - Born in Qatar
Karim Boudiaf - Moroccan, moved to Qatar 2010
Tameem Al-Muhaza - Born in Qatar
Salem Al-Hajri - Born in Qatar
Bassam Al-Rawi - Iraqi - Qatar mother?
Boualem Khoukhi - Algerian - Moved to Qatar 2009
Abdelrahman Moustafa - Born in Qatar
Abdulkarim Al-Ali - Born in Qatar
Almoez Ali - Sudanese, moved to Qatar aged 7
Ali Afif - Born in Qatar
Yousef Hassan - Born in Qatar
Mohammed Al-Bakri - Born in Qatar
Assim Madibo - Born in Qatar

co durham boy

No bigger culprits of this FIFA law than the home nations and also the ties between the South American countries and the Spanish . Agreed the Qatari's took the piss but belive me Jack Charlton was the master of the long lost grandparent rule in the 90's .

DXBtoDOH

Who really cares where the players are from in today's football world? Any notions of nationality long since flew out the window when money arrived.

At the end of the day, these players still have to live in Qatar. Poor things.

DOHDUBMAN

Has this been verified? This team had way more ties to the country than i initially expected.

What are they expecting though from a pool of lets say 10,000 men of football playing age? I don't even want to put a figure on the percentage of Qatari men who would even want to play

Millhouse

fezzer

Looks like it. It's a bit of a mess to be honest. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_eligibility_rules

Asking around the office, there are plenty of expats who could meet eligibility requirements for a list of countries (along with their kids). Wouldn't me surprised if this becomes a bigger issue in years to come since people are much more mobile these days.

littlejimmy

So what about this British dude who was arrested in Dubai for wearing a Qatar shirt which has been reported in the UK this morning? Probably not the full story, but come on...surely not?

Irishbeekeeper

I should hope not, that would be too petty...wait, never mind

by the by, on the topic of diversified teams, who won the world cup this year again?

fezzer

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...-release-qatar

He beat himself up. Case closed.

Miss Ann Thrope

The apotheosis of which came when Tony Cascarino, who qualified under the one grandparent rule, revealed in his much-better-than-the-average-football autobiog that he had been adopted....

In fairness, the Qataris have done a bang up job getting ready to avoid humiliation in their WC with a well thought-out and executed long-term plan which, if you believe all of the so-far-largely-accurate scuttlebutt, will culminate in the appointment of their new coach for 2022, one Josep Guardiola. Yet another way to stick it to MBZ. Of course no doubt Qatar are using many of the same, um, techniques that led to the upsurge in British cycling success for and since the 2012 Olympics.

scrubbedexpat141

Welcome back.

Miss Ann Thrope

Thanks but I have actually gone, from the UAE at least. I just look in here occasionally and happened to be back there last week for Qatar's hilarious triumph!