Algeria triumph in Qatar
Fennec Foxes victorious in World Cup warm-up event
The extra-time goals from Amir Sayoud and Yacine Brahimi that crowned Algeria first-time Arab Cup winners may remain footnotes in football’s history books. That’s not to belittle the tenth edition of a tournament, outside the FIFA calendar, that enchanted with incessant last-minute drama and great goals. It enjoyed huge interest from across the region and led to wild celebrations on Algiers’ 1er Mai square.
In the final against Tunisia, Brahimi’s championship-winning goal, the last kick of the match, was a fitting end to a tournament full of slow burners. In the quarter-finals, the African champions eliminated Morocco on penalties while Egypt needed two extra-time goals against Jordan. The stoppage-time drama in the semi-finals was as compelling as it was bizarre: Tunisia got a last-gasp winner in the dying seconds through an own-goal by the Egyptian captain Amr El Solia, while Algeria’s victory over the hosts was even more chaotic. Polish referee Szymon Marciniak allowed for 19 minutes of stoppage-time in total, during which Qatar equalised to make it 1-1, before Youcef Belaili – a striker that, going into the tournament, played his club football for Qatar SC – struck the winner from a rebounded penalty with 107 minutes on the clock.
Against the well-organised Algerians, the host nation failed to replicate the swashbuckling attacks that demolished the United Arab Emirates 5-0 in the quarter-finals in a match that drew 63,439 spectators – the single highest attendance ever for a sporting event in Qatar. The country’s third-place finish was satisfactory but hardly convincing.
Ever since Qatar’s maiden Asian Cup win in 2019, the pedigree of the World Cup hosts has been questioned. Qatar adopted the best-practice recruitment and development model of the club game to build a national team at the famed Aspire academy, but having participated in competitions in four of FIFA’s six regions, the performances have often fallen short.
The team of Felix Sanchez is closely knit but lacks depth and when striker Almoez Ali, inconsistent throughout the Arab Cup, fades, too much of the burden falls on his partner Akram Afif.
In the end, the hosts were Asia’s sole representatives in the last four in a tournament that was dominated by North Africa. Although shorn of their European-based players, the Maghreb participants and Egypt overpowered their Asian opponents through intensity, physicality, skill and experience, stirring fierce emotions in the stand where supporters often ignited the storied, local rivalries. More than half a million fans attended the 32 matches across six stadiums, all World Cup venues.
The Arab Cup offered a glimpse of the first World Cup in the Middle East: a compact tournament embedded in the local culture. FIFA president Gianni Infantino said that the competition “unites the Arab world”. Last staged in 2012, the tournament has more merit and depth than the smaller, regional Gulf Cup, but apart from Saudi Arabia and the UAE only a few other countries on the Arabian Peninsula have the means to stage an international 16-team tournament.
In reality, FIFA, having dropped the Confederations Cup, took charge of
the Arab Cup to stage a final, major test event in Qatar before the World Cup, a tournament that the world federation, amid a storm of outrage and accusations of corruption, awarded to the country in 2010.
Ever since, the Qatari capital has seen a decade of super-acceleration, spending an estimated $220 billion on infrastructure and World Cup venues, with its West Bay skyline reaching ever more for the sky. Doha has also staged a slate of international sporting events, including the 2015 Handball World Cup, the 2019 IAAF World Championships and the 2019 Club World Cup. Qatar’s operational readiness is not in doubt. They staged the Arab Cup without major incident and in a bio-secure way, offering hope for a normal World Cup.
Nothing has been left to chance. The World Cup is a larger-than-life soft power and nation-building project for Qatar, a dream that is sustained by the relentless labour of migrant workers. The uncomfortable questions over Qatar’s human rights record endure. In February, reported that 6,500 migrant workers have died in Qatar since 2010, with 37 deaths linked to the construction of World Cup stadiums. These numbers invited new scrutiny on Qatar.
The Arab Cup was not without problems either. Major worries remain over labour reform, press freedom and the opaque legal system. In the last month, Qatari authorities arrested three Norwegian journalists, while Abdullah Ibhais – a former media manager for the local organising committee, who raised concerns over migrant workers – was convicted to three years in prison on charges of corruption. Ibhais has always denied any wrongdoing.
Ultimately, the legacy of Qatar’s World Cup will be defined by its progress off the field, rather than the team that triumphs at the end of the 28-day extravaganza.
The 2021 Arab Cup offered a glimpse of the first World Cup in the Middle East: a compact tournament embedded in the local culture