If you were pondering whether Serie A, the Premiership or Primera Liga was the biggest recruiters of top football stars, hold your breath. The Qatar football league is increasingly becoming a hotbed for drawing football stars with the lure of huge transfer amounts.
 |  | | | | | | ©2006 Qatar Football Association | In the current season that is under way, three world-class players, Nigerian Jay-Jay Okocha, Cameroonian Bill Tchato and Australian Tony Popovic, were the headline-grabbing players who preferred to shift to the Persian Gulf country.
Carlos Tenorio, Ivan Hurtado and Christian Lara, all from Ecuador, and Jacek Bak of Poland are the other notable stars playing in the league. They all played last season and have renewed their contracts this season.
Jutting into the western part of the Persian Gulf off the eastern coast of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, which occupies a peninsula, has the world's third largest natural gas reserves and the highest per capita income. This small country has been raking in the oil dollars and the football crazy Qataris yearn for top class football action.
The oil dollars have baited world caliber players into playing in the 10-team Qatari league.
Argentine superstar Gabriel Batistuta, former Chelsea defender Frank Leboeuf, Brazilian World Cup winner Romario and Man City's Ali Benarbia have all been plied their trade in the this Middle Eastern state in seasons gone by.
Qatar's ranking in world football has made a jump of 12 places. Now ranked 64 in FIFA's world rankings, it is seen as an emerging football power in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. Its future plans have been backed by a reserve league, which launched this season. And the reserve league has an eye for future talent.
Local players who do not get an opportunity to play in the local league will get the chance to display their talent in the reserve league. The football federation is set on building a pool of players for its national team, with the Olympics in mind.
Presently, Qatar league rules provide for the fielding of four foreign players. In addition, two players from other GCC countries can also take the field. Thirty-odd foreign players from different countries play for the 10 clubs. Twenty-odd players from GCC countries ply their trade here.
Incidentally, all 10 clubs have hired foreign coaches for the season, with French-born coaches guiding the destinies of four clubs. They have in their company a Brazilian, a Moroccan, a Uruguayan, a Swiss and two Bosnian coaches. The prominent coach among them is Henri Michel, who coached Ivory Coast in the last world cup in Germany.
| | Coaches, Their Nationalities and Clubs | | | |
- Jamal Haji, Bosnian, Qatar SC.
- Henri Michel, French, Al Arabi.
- Michel Decastel, Swiss, Al Ahli.
- Jean Paul Pierre, French, Al Khor.
- Mohammed Bazirovic, Bosnian, Al Wakra.
- Edison Fernandez, Brazilian, Al Shamal.
- Hassan Hormatulla, Morocco, Umm Salal.
- Jorge Fossat, Uruguayan, Al Sadd.
- Ladislav Lozano, French, Al Rayyan.
- Michel Rouquette, French, Al Gharrafa.
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At stake for the league winner: 1.2 million Qatari riyals (U.S.$329,602). The runners up will get 700,000 riyals (U.S.$192,268), the third place winner, 400,000 riyals (U.S.$109,867). The best player and the best striker will each get 100,000 riyals (U.S.$27,467). The league organizers have 9.3 million riyals (U.S.$2,554,418) as prize money on offer. Al Sadd were the League winners, and Al Rayyan the Emir cup winners, last year.
Argentinean striker Batistuta was handed U.S.$8 million over two years -- $5.5 million the first year and $2.5 million the second year.
| | Clubs and Their Foreign Players | | | |
- Al Sadd - Carlos Tenorio, Ecuador; Marcio Emerson Passos, Brazil;
Felipe Jorge, Brazil. - Qatar SC - Jay-Jay Okocha, Nigeria; Bill Tchato, Cameroon;
Sebastian Soria, Uruguay; Al Amen Al Rabathi, Morocco. - Al Arabi - Tony Popovic, Australia; Marcelo Camacho, Brazil;
Sepriano Ransio, Portugal; Juao Henrique, Portugual. - Al Rayyan - Lokonda Mpenza, Belguim; Bushaib El Mubaraki,
Morocco; Jacek Bak, Poland. - Al Ahli - Ivan Hurtado, Ecuador; Cedric Sabin, France; Ibrahim
Ba, Senegal. - Al Gharrafa - Sergio Ricardo, Brazil; Othman El Essas, Morocco;
Younis Mahommad Khalaf, Iraq. - Al Khor - Rashid Rouki, Algeria; Fernando Silva, Andorra.
- Al Wakra - Christian Lara, Ecuador; Abdulhaq Arif, Morocco; Nadir
Ali, Libya. - Al Shamal - Ronald De Boer, Holland; Marconi Emerald, Brazil;
Francisco Claudio, Brazil; Joze Geroge, Cape Verde. - Umm Salal - Fabio Caesar Montesin, Brazil; Azziz Bin Askar,
Morocco; Ibrahim Nadai, Senegal.
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With an estimated population of 610,000, Qatar remains one of Asian football's enigmas, particularly at the youth level. They advanced to the final at the 1981 FIFA World Youth Championship, but lost to then West Germany. They had qualified for the FIFA event after finishing second in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U-20 Championship, losing to South Korea in the final.
In 1990, Qatar finished fourth in the FIFA U-17 Championship. Earlier that year, they finished as champions in the AFC U-17 Championship.
In AFC U-17 Championships, Qatar were runners up at least five times, in 1984, 1986, 1992, 1994 and 1998.
At the senior level, Qatar won the Gulf Cup twice in 2004 and 1992. On both these occasions, Qatar was the host. The national senior team has also qualified for the Asian Cup finals, at least seven times, in 1980, 1984, 1988, 1996, 2000 and 2004.
In order to sustain their success, the Qataris have once again turned their attention to youth development, particularly through the Aspire Academy, which was launched in September 2004.
Their foreign players having returned from their countries for preseason training, the league is being stages at five venues, Al Sadd, Al Rayyan, Qatar SC, Al Gharrafa and Al Arabi. During the Asian games, Al Khor and Al Wakra will be the venues for the matches.
The other feature of the league clubs here in Qatar is that all of them have their own stadiums.
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