From the women’s team to grassroots football – questions lingering in Qatar after World Cup

The Qatar women’s team has not played an official game since 2014. A squad exists in some form, and is believed to gather for training and matches played in private, but their activities are kept far from the spotlight and they are not run by the local FA. They do not appear on the Fifa rankings. The side was formed in 2009, shortly before the World Cup bid was made, but has only been in action 15 times. In private the right noises are being made about a return to action and discussions are believed to be underway, although as with many of the lingering questions about Qatar’s post-World Cup future there is little detail about timescales. The idea is that they will have infrastructure waiting for them, with the Education City Stadium being repurposed into the team’s home and a hub for women’s sport. A friendly tournament involving academy and club sides from Qatar and abroad took place there last month. A small local league exists, while positive steps are undoubtedly being made to improve participation at grassroots level: the recently-created Elite Academy for girls shows promise. But real hope that Qatar is serious about developing the sport would come in the form of an active national team.

Endorsed glowingly by David Beckham on its website as a model World Cup legacy project, the Qatar Community Football League is a bona fide success story. It has run for six years and now involves around 2,000 participants in men’s, boys’ and girls’ leagues. The players are largely migrants; the standard is high and it functions as the country’s strongest amateur competition. But despite Beckham’s praise, its future form is in some doubt. The league is funded through the World Cup’s Supreme Committee, which is winding down and