Qatar and Saudi Arabia’s unprecedented spending on the world of football over the past decade has given them influence, attention and access that few other nations can match.
For the first time, it appears that this also had an effect on events on the field. The national teams of both countries secured places in the 2026 World Cup in October, after the highest football body in Asia — which receives generous investments from the two Persian Gulf countries — changed the qualification rules to grant them the advantage of playing at home, extra days of rest and access to more tickets for fans.
The measures infuriated opponents and brought to light a new discussion about how power works at the top of world football.
“I just can’t understand it,” said Carlos Queiroz, coach of the Oman national team, which played out a goalless draw with Qatar in October in Doha. “I am, however, absolutely convinced that this play-off format was the worst service that football management could have done to its own credibility.”
Qatar’s football federation, whose only previous World Cup participation was not through qualifying but as the tournament’s host country, declined to comment. The Asian Football Confederation and Saudi Arabia’s football federation did not respond to requests for comment.
Spending by the two Persian Gulf nations has repeatedly called football’s credibility into question, particularly after FIFA, its global governing body, in 2010 awarded small, gas-rich Qatar the right to host the 2022 World Cup in a bidding process widely seen as corrupt. Qatar denies the accusations. Outrage grew further when FIFA ignored its own rules and awarded the 2034 tournament to Saudi Arabia without a bid.
Wealthy nations or powerful leaders often use sport to improve their reputation or secure influence. President Vladimir Putin of Russia presided over the 2014 Winter Olympics, which witnessed the worst doping scandal in the sport’s history, and then took center stage at the World Cup his country hosted four years later.
Saudi authorities argue they are investing in the sport to diversify their oil-dependent economy and meet the youth population’s enthusiasm for football. The Saudi national team has qualified for the World Cup seven times.
“The Saudi leadership wants the country to take its rightful place among the world’s leading sporting powers, and its motivation is driven by growing national pride and the conviction that Saudi Arabia has become a great power,” said Neil Quilliam, an expert on Persian Gulf countries at Chatham House, a London-based research organization.
In Asian football, decisions have increasingly leaned towards one side. The region’s football governing body, known as the AFC, has relaxed player eligibility rules to allow more foreigners into clubs after teams began signing international stars such as Cristiano Ronaldo on lucrative contracts. The AFC also changed the format of its main competition so that all finals matches would be played in Saudi Arabia, giving teams from the kingdom a home advantage.
His management of World Cup qualification, however, is exceptional.
The AFC has secured eight places for its members at next year’s World Cup, which will be co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico. The federation established the qualification structure for its 47 member countries a year before matches began in 2023.
The complex format allowed for some paths to the World Cup. In one route, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates would secure the right to host the tournament and first place in the finals, based on their performances in previous qualifiers. In this final phase, six teams would be divided into two groups, and the winner of each group would guarantee a place in the World Cup.
But the federation suddenly changed course in March. Instead of granting the right to host the event to teams from Iraq and the United Arab Emirates, it instituted a bidding process based on “principles of fairness”, according to a letter from the federation to member countries analyzed by The New York Times.
Several countries submitted applications. In June, the Asian federation awarded the right to host the tournament not to Iraq and the United Arab Emirates, but to Saudi Arabia and Qatar, without any explanation. Both also received the seeding classification. Qatar achieved this position on merit, but Saudi Arabia did not; Iraq was ranked better. Top-ranked countries had twice as many rest days between matches compared to their opponents.
The discrepancy in rest time was “the most critical issue”, said Queiroz, who has coached some of the world’s biggest football teams, including Manchester United and Real Madrid.
“Jesus once said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing,'” he added. “But in this case, they knew exactly what they were doing.”
National federations, rival teams and fans expressed fury.
“Disclosure of the selection process and deadlines would contribute to strengthening trust between federations and maintaining the principle of equal opportunities,” the Iraqi national team wrote in a statement. The UAE also sent letters of complaint.
The Asian federation never responded.
In their qualifying match against Qatar in October, the UAE team only needed a draw to guarantee a place in the World Cup. But it struggled to recover after falling behind on the scoreboard, facing, among other obstacles, an aggressive Qatari crowd, who interrupted the final minutes of the game by throwing objects onto the field. Qatar captain Akram Afif later admitted that he had incited the crowd to misbehave, “just to buy time, naturally”, highlighting the advantage of playing at home.
Qatar hosted the match in a small stadium rather than one of the larger ones it had built for the 2022 World Cup, limiting the attendance of UAE fans. The population of the United Arab Emirates is more than three times that of Qatar.
Frustration among the small group of UAE fans culminated in a riot that required the intervention of stadium security. And at a lavish AFC event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in October, a UAE delegation refused to accept an award on stage.
It was not clear why the Asian football federation, led by a member of Bahrain’s royal family, Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, did not use neutral venues for the games, as some of the participating teams had requested. The organization’s headquarters in Malaysia had previously served as neutral headquarters.
The sudden rule change is the latest example of how football officials have backed away from promises of greater transparency following the 2015 global corruption scandal, said Miguel Maduro, FIFA’s former head of governance under Gianni Infantino.
“Are they establishing a set of rules for this group of participants that is convenient for them?” asked Maduro. He suggested that FIFA could have intervened as the qualification process administered by the AFC was ultimately for the FIFA World Cup. In response to a request for comment, a FIFA representative shared a 54-page guide to the competition’s regulations.
Saudi Arabia and Qatar have also sought influence with FIFA. Qatar provided Infantino with a luxurious mansion ahead of the 2022 World Cup, and he continues to have unfettered access to a state-owned private jet.
FIFA has received millions of dollars in Saudi support, and Infantino also visited Riyadh frequently. Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has hosted Infantino at his official palace and at sporting and business events. Infantino attended an investment conference this week, where he spoke alongside world leaders in a panel discussion about whether humanity was heading in the “right direction.”
The FIFA president has proven to be a crucial ally for the kingdom. He helped promote a Saudi proposal to hold the World Cup every two years, instead of every four, a proposal that ended up not being successful. FIFA also relaxed its own rules by granting the kingdom the right to host the 2034 tournament.
Infantino has also been outspoken in support of the crown prince’s efforts to radically reorient the country’s economy and culture. One of the main pillars has been investment in sport, transforming Saudi Arabia into the world’s largest buyer of sporting events, rights and talent.
Iraq and the United Arab Emirates have one last chance to qualify for the World Cup. The team that wins the two-game clash advances to the next stage, where they will play one more game for a place in the tournament. Neither team will have an advantage; each will play one match at home.
