Club owner Al-Qadi puts Rovers on the global stage
BRISTOL Rovers have something of a noted ambassador at the World Cup in Qatar with owner Wael Al-Qadi present in the stands for the tournament opener and sporting a Pirates shirt, writes James Piercy.
Al-Qadi has been a regular visitor to the tournament in the past, and it was nigh-on impossible that he would miss the first to be held in the Middle East with Qatar just a short three-hour flight from his native Jordan.
The Rovers president posted a number of pictures and videos on his Instagram account from Doha, and then inside and outside the Al Bayt Stadium and during the national anthems, with the Gas Pirate logo on full display. Qatar were soundly beaten 2-0 by Ecuador in the first game of the tournament which will not be the last he attends either.
As well as financing Rovers since 2016 with his family, Al-Qadi is a committed football tourist and, based on one of the pictures posted, the venue for the game in Al Khor, just 30 miles outside the capital Doha, was the 974th stadium he has visited to watch a game.
As expected, the posts drew plenty of reaction from Rovers supporters, some enjoying the images of the club’s paraphernalia on the biggest stage, but others also drawing reference with the club’s ongoing wait for a new stadium.
There have been no new updates on the status of the development at the Fruit Market in St Philip’s Marsh, which remains Rovers’ preferential site for a new stadium, as first revealed by AlQadi in summer 2019.
One supporter quipped on Instagram: “Getting some ideas I hope”, while another added: “Would rather be at the Mem”.
Wael Al-Qadi has close links with FIFA, having become an executive board member of the Jordan Football Association in 2014, two years before his family’s purchase of Rovers.
He also was a member of the campaign team behind Prince Ali bin Hussein’s unsuccessful campaign for the FIFA presidency in 2016.
■ Taunton Town are scheduled to be in National League South action this evening with Dulwich Hamlet the visitors to Somerset.
It is a repeat of Saturday’s clash in the second round proper of the FA Trophy, which Taunton won 2-1. The Somerset side are 17th in the standings, while Dulwich are below them in 20th.