Twelve years later, it seems that the former FIFA president regrets the choice of Qatar for the 2022 World Cup. This is what he confessed on November 8 in an interview with the Swiss media outlet Tages-Anzeiger, in which, by the way, , also accused Michel Platini (former UEFA president) of having given up their valuable votes in exchange for satisfying illegitimate interests. Specifically, an arms deal with France.
The affair has caused an earthquake, as if it were the first time that the Al Thani monarchy had bought weapons from a Western country, or as if that country were not a strategic ally of the United States. Same as Saudi Arabia, where there are also permanent US bases.
Yes, Qatar is an absolute monarchy where the rights of homosexuals, immigrant workers or religious minorities are not respected and where women are protected. And, at the same time, it is an important piece in the order that the US wants to maintain in the region. In this balance, the Al Thani family survives, which has ruled since the mid-19th century, always with the support of some Western power.
Before the discovery of oil, the peninsula had been an insignificant pearling port. Like the whole area, easy prey for the spread of Islam in the 7th century. It did not interest Europeans until the 19th century. First, to ensure maritime traffic in the Persian Gulf, and then, for crude oil.
It is not strange that in the first description of Qatar, which is the one made by the Greek historian Herodotus (c. 484-c. 425 BC), pearl activity already appears. At that time it was carried out by the Canaanites, a people who came from the Fertile Crescent (present-day Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Israel) and who will be familiar to many because of their appearance in the Holy Scriptures.
From then on, Qatari history is that of the successive empires that invaded it. The first to arrive was Alexander the Great (356-323 BC). Rather an emissary named Andróstenes de Thasos, to whom he had entrusted the exploration of the Persian Gulf.
Because he died prematurely, that mission was of no use to Alexander, but it was of no use to one of the generals who divided up his conquests. He had only touched the eastern part of Alexander's empire, but Seleucus I (c. 358-281 BC) decided to expand it by claiming the eastern coast of the Arabian peninsula.
Then it was the turn of the Persians, who, whether ruled by Parthians or Sassanids, always controlled that territory. His claim was to dominate the ports, since, for the rest, Qatar was a place inhabited by nomads and economically insignificant.
Perhaps the most curious thing about the Sassanid era is that an incipient Christian community flourished there. Between the 4th and 7th centuries several monasteries were built and the place even saw the birth of a saint revered today by the Orthodox: Isaac of Nineveh (c. 640-c. 700).
However, Isaac could be an exception, since while he was born the peninsula was already undergoing a rapid process of Islamization. Unified under the same caliphate, Muhammad's descendants definitively overthrew the Sassanid Empire in 651, definitively linking the fate of Qatar to that of the successive caliphs.
At least nominally, since the area took time to become politically structured. In fact, it did not stop being a gathering of Bedouins without a clear leadership until the 19th century.
A problem for the British, who would have preferred to have an interlocutor to negotiate the end of piracy. That was partly why they arrived there at the beginning of the 19th century, to ensure maritime transport for the East India Company.
Even so, at the time the British still viewed Qatar as a vassal territory of neighboring Bahrain. They did not recognize it as a sovereign entity until 1868, when they signed an agreement with Mohammed bin Thani (c. 1788-1878). It was at a crucial moment, moreover, since it meant the rise to the government of the Al Thani, who would no longer leave power.
And that it cost them to maintain it. In 1871 they were invaded by the Ottomans, an empire they could not oust until 1913. Once again it became clear that without outside help they were a pawn in the hands of the regional powers. That is why, in 1916, Abdullah bin Jassim (1880-1957), another Al Thani, threw himself into the arms of the British, handing over his foreign policy in exchange for military protection.
It was during his government when they discovered the oil deposits, which became a vital finding in the face of the more than possible British withdrawal. When London announced its intention to withdraw from the Gulf in 1968, oil shipments already gave the Al Thani monarchy enough muscle to assert its sovereignty.
Then, in the 1990s, US bases arrived, and the use of Qatari airports and military installations was even allowed for both the invasion of Afghanistan (2001) and Iraq (2003). In the new scenario, the Al Thani decided to choose Washington as an ally, while presenting themselves to the world as a stable country. It is in this effort that it is possible to locate their fixation to host a World Cup.
