Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia and Qatar that poured a fortune into soccer and infrastructure experienced unceremonious exits from the World Cup, proving that big money doesn’t guarantee success on the sport’s biggest stage.
Saudi Arabia’s Early Exit
Saudi Arabia is out at the earliest point, finishing at the bottom of a group that included tiny Cape Verde, the third-smallest nation ever to compete on this stage and into the knockouts for the first time.
By signing the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar, and Karim Benzema as part of a spectacular recruitment drive in recent years, Saudi Arabia has been a major disruptor of club soccer. However, on the international stage, it still has a long way to go, eight years out from hosting the World Cup in 2034.
Qatar’s Disappointing Performance
Qatar, the host four years ago, is also on its way home after just three games, along with other Gulf nations Iran and Iraq. Compared to the success of African teams at this World Cup, with nine out of 10 advancing to the round of 32, Gulf nations are struggling mightily to make their mark.
A goalless draw against Cape Verde ended Saudi Arabia’s hopes of advancing from the group phase for the first time since 1994. Saudi coach Georgios Donis expressed concern over the team’s performance, stating, “It was not what we wanted because when playing in such a match against a team that is more or less the same level as us, our performance was not good.”
Qatar made history with its first point at a World Cup, scoring a dramatic late equalizer against Switzerland. However, it was another disappointingly early exit after it was eliminated just two games into its home tournament in 2022.
Focus on Development
The appointment of Julen Lopetegui, the former Spain and Real Madrid coach, is evidence of the type of investment Qatar has made to try to boost its performance on the global stage. Unlike Saudi Arabia, it has not embarked on such an audacious drive to attract aging stars from Europe to its domestic league.
Despite a population of 3 million people and only around 300,000 citizens, Qatar has managed to develop enough homegrown players to win back-to-back Asian Cups in recent years and assert its dominance on a region that includes powers like Japan and South Korea.
However, it has not been able to translate those performances to the World Cup, and such an early exit marks a disappointment less than four years after hosting the tournament and spending billions of dollars to create eight state-of-the-art stadiums.
Original reporting: KSAT Sports (San Antonio) — read the source article.
