Tribune News Network
Doha
The Qatar Football Association (QFA) has announced the first national team for matches against Afghanistan and India of the joint qualifying campaign for the 2026 World Cup and the 2027 Asian Cup.
Qatar will play Afghanistan at the Khalifa International Stadium on November 16, and take on India in an away game at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneshwar on November 21 in the first two of their Group A games. The group also includes Kuwait, who will meet India Nov 16), and Afghanistan (Nov 21).
Qatar coach Carlos Queiroz has included 26 players in the team roster which is as follows:
Goalkeepers: Salah Zakaria, Fahd Younis, Meshaal Barshim, and Youssef Hassan; Defenders: Bassam Al Rawi, Boualem Khoukhi, Pedro Miguel, Hazem Shehata, Tarek Salman, Lucas Mendez, Homam Al Amin, and Youssef Ayman; Midfielders: Ahmed Fathi, Jassem Jaber, Hassan Al Haydos, Abdullah Maarafi, Karim Boudiaf, Muhammad Waad and Mustafa Meshaal; Forwards: Ahmed Al Rawi, Ahmed Alaaeldin, Akram Afif, Almoez Ali, Tamim Mansour, Muhammad Muntari and Youssef Abdel Razzaq.
The preparatory training of Al Annabi began on Wednesday at Aspire.
The 36 teams participating in the joint qualifiers (the second stage of the World Cup and Asian Cup qualifiers) have been divided into nine groups of four teams each. The qualifying rounds will be held from November 16, 2023 to June 11, 2024.
Top two teams from each group shall qualify for the third stage of the World Cup qualifiers, with top 18 teams ensuring qualification to the 2027 Asian Cup finals to held in Saudi Arabia.
Afghanistan players
for boycott
Meanwhile, players from the Afghanistan team are boycotting their World Cup qualifying match against Qatar over their treatment by the football federation. A substantial number, 18 players, have reportedly refused to play in the match, due to take place in Qatar on November 16.
Three footballers who play overseas sent a letter last month to the Asian Football Confederation and FIFA detailing complaints and allegations of serious corruption by the Afghanistan Football Federation, the Guardian has reported.
“The last straw came at the last camp when a big group of us decided that we’d had enough – 18 players got together and said: ‘If we’re going to move forward, we have to put a stop to this,’” Noor Husin, who plays in the National League for Southend United, told the Guardian newspaper.
“We want to help domestic players because the money they are getting from FIFA is not being used in the right way. We have the worst flights possible and we have to stay in substandard hotels. We’ve come together as a group because we want football in Afghanistan to move forward and we believe that it’s not going to move forward with the people that are in charge at the moment.”
The federation’s secretary Behram Siddiqui has denied the allegations. While players have argued that the AFF executive committee kept half of the bonus that should have gone to the squad for reaching the next stage of the World Cup qualifying, and that they have been holding on to money from plane tickets of players travelling to games.
A FIFA spokesperson said: “Fifa was informed of these allegations very recently and is currently looking into the matter.”
