Qatar’s World Cup challenge magnified by track worlds issues

There will be familiar faces for South Korean baseball fans among their national team’s opponents at an Olympic baseball qualifying tournament next month.

Australia, Canada and Cuba — the three opposing teams for Group C host South Korea at the Premier12 tournament scheduled for November — announced their final rosters on Wednesday.

Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul will be the venue for the Nov. 6-8 World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) tournament, which will double as a qualifying event for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Australia’s pitching staff will feature one current and one former player from the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO).

Hanwha Eagles’ right-hander Warwick Saupold got the call, after going 12-11 with a 3.51 ERA in 2019, his first KBO season. He was particularly sharp in the second half, with a 6-2 record and a 1.85 ERA.

Left-hander Travis Blackley spent one year in the South Korean league with the Kia Tigers in 2011, when he was 7-5 with a 3.48 ERA.

Both Saupold and Blackley have major league experience.

Former KBO ace Chris Oxspring will be on Australia’s coaching staff. Oxspring pitched five seasons in the KBO for three different teams, compiling a 49-40 record with a 3.90 ERA. He also served as pitching coach for a KBO club, Lotte Giants, from 2016 to 2018.

Joining the Canadian pitching staff will be right-hander Brock Dykxhoorn, who split his first KBO season this year with the SK Wyverns and the Giants. He went 6-10 with a 4.34 ERA.

Scott Richmond, a right-hander who had a contract dispute with the Lotte Giants six years ago, made the Canadian team, too.

Canada also features 2006 American League MVP Justin Morneau and ex-All-Star outfielder Michael Saunders.

Morneau, 38, played his final major league game in 2016 and announced his retirement in January 2018, while Saunders, 32, last played in the bigs in 2017.

Those on the 40-man roster in the majors won’t be eligible for the Premier12.

There’s one Cuban player currently in the KBO, Jose Miguel Fernandez of the Doosan Bears, but he didn’t make his national team for the Premier12.

The Premier12 features the top 12 countries in the world rankings. South Korea is the highest-ranked nation in Group C at No. 3, followed by Cuba (No. 5), Australia (No. 7) and Canada (No. 10).

The Group A teams are No. 2 USA, No. 6 Mexico, No. 8 Netherlands and No. 12 Dominican Republic. Their games will take place in Guadalajara, Mexico.

DOHA, Qatar (AP) — By day, Juma Marzouq approves Qatar’s masterplans for the vast stadium infrastructure for the 2022 World Cup. By night, Marzouq goes into fan mode, tackling the challenge of filling soccer arenas in this tiny nation.

Marzouq has seen encouraging signs since Qatar’s breakthrough on the field in February, when it won the Asian Cup for its first major soccer title.

The urban planning expert last week glanced around the near-full stands of Al Sadd’s 15,000-seat stadium for the visit of Saudi Arabian side Al Hilal in the semifinals of the Asian Champions League, a small victory for the hosts.

“We have a new generation coming to the stadiums,” Marzouq said.

It isn’t always like this at soccer — or any other sport in Qatar — despite the ruling family’s thirst for bidding for elite events.

Almost 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) from Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium, far less boisterous scenes played out at Khalifa Stadium for most of the 10 days of the world track and field championships that ended Sunday. Organizers were left trying to explain away the thousands of empty seats.

“In every event there are lessons learned,” said Dahlan Al Hamad, vice president of the local organizing committee. “You cannot build the fan in one day, you have to engage them in the sport, they have to know the system of the sport, they have to have their athletes and know about their lives.

“We are really increasing the number of fans,” he said. “If you could just compare today compared to 10 years ago you know, the fans here in Doha, it would be totally different than here.”

Just like FIFA’s contentious decision to grant the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, this was the first time the showpiece event on the track calendar had been awarded to the Middle East. The sparsely attended competition reignited concerns about Qatar’s ability to fill the eight stadiums that have been built from scratch or completely renovated to meet FIFA’s standards.

“People love (soccer) here,” said Al Sadd coach Xavi Hernandez, a World Cup-winning midfielder with Spain in 2010. “They are crazy for (soccer).”

Xavi is helping to promote Qatar’s soccer credentials to a world skeptical of the choice of location for sport’s premier quadrennial event. He also does damage control — the World Cup bidding process and the conditions for migrant workers building the event’s infrastructure are two hot-button topics. FIFA is counting on rabid fans to travel no matter where the world’s most popular sporting event is held because this World Cup faces challenges others haven’t.

The oppressive summer heat forced FIFA to move the World Cup from its June-July slot to a November-December schedule that cuts into the club season in Europe and changes the habits of fans who are resistant to change.

Those who make the trip will need to be open-minded, and patient, especially in the traffic on the Doha roads.

Finding a beer won’t be easy. Many hotels are dry and only one shop in the country sells booze to locally-based foreigners with employer approval.

Unlike in Russia or Brazil — the past two hosts — there is not a vast variety of tourist attractions, beyond the national museum that is still being completed, the souk and trips into the desert. With all stadiums within an hour of Doha, the skyscraper and mall-filled capital will be the hub.