After 88 years and more than 3,000 matches, Harold Finch thought he had seen everything, but Sunday was a rare event.
The season is over for Finch’s beloved club, Crewe Alexandra, who play in the third tier of English soccer, but unusual guests arrived at the weekend for a match at the town’s modest, brick-built Gresty Road — Qatar. Awash in money and controversy, they were in Crewe to play Northern Ireland in an international friendly.
The game was Qatar’s first match in Britain, the first played between Qatar and Northern Ireland and, most interestingly for Finch, the encyclopedic historian at Crewe Alexandra, the first involving two full international sides to be played in Crewe.
Photo: Reuters
“It is a most unusual one,” he said in a puzzled tone, echoing the feeling of many in town who were confused as to why the national team from a small Persian Gulf state would choose to play in such humble surroundings.
Qatar’s timing for its maiden British tour (the team also play Scotland on Friday in Edinburgh) could not have been worse. The past week has been dominated by the news of FIFA’s corruption scandal, at least part of which was related to Qatar’s disputed victory in the bidding for the 2022 World Cup.
The investigation into racketeering and bribery being led by US law enforcement and tax officials has not yet stretched to Qatar, but a separate Swiss inquiry is asking new questions about that process.
The Swiss criminal investigation was announced on Wednesday last week, only a few hours after seven FIFA officials were arrested at the Baur au Lac hotel in Zurich, where they had traveled for FIFA’s annual congress.
For many around the world, Qatar, FIFA and the corruption allegations have become inextricably connected, with the US and British news media — at least according to FIFA president Sepp Blatter — leading the charge.
Qatar have kept a low profile on the trip, choosing to not publicize their stay at the Football Association’s St George’s Park, the newly opened national training center in nearby Burton-upon-Trent. Few in Crewe, chosen for its proximity to St George’s Park, even knew about the game. Tickets sold for just £5 (US$8) each, but for nearly everyone, Qatar were nowhere to be seen.
“From a personal point of view, I’m very disappointed that they haven’t done a program for today,” Finch said as he sorted old programs in the club shop.
Outside the stadium, as several hundred Northern Ireland fans began arriving for Sunday’s game, the only sign of the dark maroon of the Qatar flag was on the scarves being sold outside.
“I got 126 made up for today’s game,” said a vendor from Manchester, who gave his name as Martin.
Qatar arrived 90 minutes before the game in a luxury bus, but quickly disappeared into the stadium.
Qatar have long relied on naturalized players to make up for the nation’s modest size and population — some see that as the emirate’s master plan to become competitive by 2022 — and their squad was no different, made up of players born in at least eight countries.
A handful were graduates of Aspire Academy, Qatar’s state-of-the-art training and player development facility, which has been criticized as it hunts for talent across Asia and Africa.
When the match began, Qatar did not appear to have a single supporter in the stands. In their absence, a contingent of 3,000 Northern Ireland fans sang songs honoring former Manchester United winger George Best, Northern Ireland’s greatest player, as well as others mocking Qatar over their recent travails.
“If you’re from Qatar, you’re into bribery, bribery, bribery,” went one chant.
Other fans held up banners highlighting the poor treatment of the migrant workers building infrastructure for the World Cup. Dozens of those workers have died, a growing human rights problem for Qatar and for FIFA.
“I work with a lot of Nepalese guys who have worked in Qatar and they are treated like slaves,” said Martin Lowry, 37, who said that he works for the Royal Air Force.
Lowry held a large cardboard sign bearing the words: “Qatar. Play by the rules.”
“To be honest, we shouldn’t be playing this match,” Lowry added. “Qatar should be ostracized.”
Northern Ireland took the lead a minute into the second half, but Qatar, dreadful in the first 45 minutes, came back into the match and dominated until the final whistle. Technically gifted and sparked by several second-half changes, Qatar equalized late with a stunning strike by Karim Boudiaf.
The match finished 1-1. Qatar decided not to hold a news conference.
“We are not used to playing on a field like this,” Qatar’s Uruguayan coach Jose Daniel Carreno said.
He had stopped to puff on a cigarette as his players filed past and onto their bus.
More protests are expected when Qatar play Scotland, while Finch said he had enjoyed his first experience of full international soccer at Gresty Road.
“After Ireland scored the first, I thought they were going to flatten them,” he said as he closed up the shop tucked in the corner of the stadium which he has opened before every match since the 1960s.
Finch was impressed, he said, by Qatar, so much so that he had even forgiven them for not printing a program to add to his collection.
“Qatar showed some very, very good football and their goal was a beauty,” he said.
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