Saudis in Doha: this week in Middle East Football

On Monday, Saudi Al-Hilal played at the Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium in Doha against local side Al-Rayyan. It was the Blue Royal Club’s first visit to Qatar since the Gulf Crisis.

Though, the downfall of the Saudi champions has continued, and the Qataris outplayed them pretty easily. Moroccan striker Abderrazak Hamdallah has notched the first on the verge of the halftime whistle, while 38 years old Rodrigo Tabata, a Qatari forward of Brazilian-Japanese origin have nailed a beauty to make it 2-0. Yasser Al-Qahtani have scored one for Al-Hilal in the stoppage time but it didn’t changed the atmosphere around his team.

After 4 matches in the competition, in a group with few of the continents top clubs, Al-Hilal is slumping only with 2 points, looking miserable and lost.

Maybe sending Ramon Diaz away that fast wasn’t such a good idea? Time will tell.

Now, the Blues need to win both their last matches, to hope that Al-Ain and Al-Rayyan draw their clash, and the Qataris to lose to Esteghlal Tehran, and to make a draw between themselves, in order to somehow, get on to second place that will the team to the next round. Prepare yourself for drama.

Speaking of Al-Ain, the club has visited the Azadi Stadium in Tehran the same evening, and played local Esteghlal in front of a massive attendance of 90,000 (!) fans.

The teams have separated in a 1-1 draw, that helped the Iranian team to remain stable at the two first spots with 6 points and 6-5 in goal difference, exactly like Al-Rayyan.

Senegalese Mame Thiam scored for the Iranians while Japanese Tsukasa Shiptani equalized for Al-Ain.

After the match, Omar ‘Amoory’ Abdulrahman has said that Winfried Schäffer, Estghlal’s German coach has encouraged his players to beat ‘curly number 10’ (Amoory himself).

Speaking of Amoory, the Emirati star have been left out of the UAE squad together with striker Ali Mabkhout, for the forthcoming international matches, as a response for the disciplinary violation the two committed during the last Gulf Cup, after the UAE have been knocked out of the tournament.

The players denied, the FA pushed for it, and the truth is, as always, somewhere in the middle.

This Friday, Iraq will be in the heart of the FIFA Congress Agenda in Bogota, Colombia. On the table: the efforts to lift the international ban on the country to host official matches on home soil

Iraq hopes for a lift

This Friday, Iraq will be in the heart of the FIFA Congress Agenda in Bogota, Colombia. On the table: the efforts to lift the international ban on the country to host official matches on home soil. Iraq has been striving to improve their facilities, security conditions, and general standards of having profesional football scenario.

Iraq haven’t hosted an official match since 2013, but from last June have invited many national teams to play at their brand new and modern stadiums. Jordan, Kenya and Saudi Arabia already arrived, while Qatar & Syria will take part in a triangular tournament this month, on March 22nd-27th.

The issue has been alerted as highly important for Iraqi football development, and the decision that will be taken in the FIFA Congress could be a crucial one.

Will Iraqi football flourish, fulfill its potential and rise to where it should, or whether it will continue to suffer from the politics, the terror and instability of different militants, general and the Saudi-Iranian conflict?

Millions are already praying.

Uri Levy runs the popular football blog BabaGol, which covers football and politics focusing on the Middle East. Follow him on Twitter, and read his blog here.