Saturday 6 June 2015 10:51, UK
As Qatar prepare to face Scotland in Friday’s friendly in Edinburgh live on Sky Sports 5, we take a closer look at the tiny Asian country whose hopes of hosting the 2022 World Cup are hanging in the balance…
So, without further ado, here are 14 things you probably didn't know about Qatar...
1) Qatar has a native population of under 300,000 and sits 97th in the FIFA rankings, sandwiched between Lithuania and Saudi Arabia and 69 places below Scotland.
2) Their coach is newly-appointed Uruguayan Jose Daniel Carreño, a former striker who managed Qatar Stars League outfit Al Arabi last season having secured a Saudi league and cup double with Al Nassr in 2013/14.
3) Every member of Qatar’s squad for their 1-1 draw with Northern Ireland and the upcoming friendly with Scotland plays their club football in Qatar.
4) Qatar kick off their World Cup qualifying campaign against Maldives on June 11. The other teams in a rather favourable qualifying group are China, Bhutan and Hong Kong.
5) They are currently on a three game-unbeaten run having defeated Algeria and Slovenia with back-to-back 1-0 wins in March.
6) Michael Laudrup’s Lekhwiya are reigning Qatar Stars League champions having won their fourth title. Al-Sadd have won the most Qatari league titles (13).
7) There were 613 goals scored in the 2014/15 campaign, giving the division a goals per game rate of 3.37 – higher than any of Europe’s top five leagues.
8) Notable former Premier League players currently playing in the division are former Manchester City winger Vladimir Weiss, ex-Swansea defender Chico Flores, former Arsenal striker Jeremie Aliadiere and Tuncay Sanli, the former Middlesbrough and Stoke forward.
9) Qatar are heavily reliant on naturalised players from other countries. Of the team that played in the 1-1 draw with Northern Ireland, goalscorer Karim Boudiaf, goalkeeper Amine Lecomte and defender Dame Toure are French, while striker Mohammed Muntari and defender Mohammed Kasola are Ghanaian and left-sided midfielder Majdi Siddiq is from Saudi Arabia.
10) The Qatar Football Association was founded in 1960 and joined FIFA in 1970.
11) The closest Qatar have come to qualifying for a World Cup was France ’98, when they were defeated by Saudi Arabia knowing a win would have sent them through.
12) One thing Qatar have in common with England is that they have suffered tournament heartbreak at the hands of the Germans… Their biggest success came in the 1981 U20 World Cup in Australia, when they lost 4-0 to West Germany having beaten Brazil and England on the way to reaching the final.
13) Their most capped player is Wesam Rizik, a 34-year-old midfielder born in Kuwait who still plays for El Jaish in the Qatar Stars League.
14) Their leading goalscorer is Mansoor Muftah, who netted 53 goals in 86 appearances between 1976 and 1990.
Watch Scotland v Qatar live on Sky Sports 5 HD from 7.30pm on Friday
