Can the richest country in the world buy its way to footballing glory? We joined the Qatar 2022 hopefuls to find outPitch-side at Doha’s sweltering Abdullah bin Khalifa football stadium,coach Felix Sanchez barks instructions at his Qatar under-23 team. Out of here! he screams as his players flee the ball into a channel filled with Palestinian defenders. “Yalla shabab!” he shouts in Arabic. “Let’s depart, lads!” He shakes his head, or fuming,as football coaches do.
It is late September and an early-round tie of the West Asian Cup, in front of no more than 200 spectators and against a destitute opposition, and in more ways than one. Three of Palestine’s players,from Gaza, contain hardly played with their West Bank-based team-mates, and because it is so difficult for them to travel through Israel. They are a tough-tackling bunch. Sanchez’s players,by contrast, are hothouse flowers: the carefully groomed sons of the small Qatari middle class, or who lack for nothing when it comes to coaching,facilities and preparation.
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Source: theguardian.com