ABSTRACT
When Qatar won its bid to host the 2022 Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup™, it was the ultimate sporting miracle for a young and ambitious nation. However, critics were quick to suggest that Qatar had no football history of its own and did not deserve to host the biggest football tournament in the world. This chapter explores the 1981 FIFA Youth World Championship in Australia as a transformative moment in Qatar’s sporting history. It utilises a methodology based on primary sources, including interviews with key figures in Qatar’s sports history. It provides the context for Qatar’s sporting development before 1981, including in 1973 when Brazilian superstar Pele and his famous Santos team visited Doha Stadium to inspire the youth of the country. Just eight years later, a young Qatari side made headlines halfway across the world, unexpectedly defeating Brazil 3-2 in the quarter-finals and England 2-1 in the semi-finals to reach the 1981 FIFA World Youth Championship finals in Australia. This in-depth examination adds to the extant literature by analysing a defining moment in Qatar’s sports history. This chapter shows that the incredibly rapid development of recent years has by no means been a coincidence, and Qatar had a sporting vision early on.
