Qatar national football team
 |
|
| Nickname(s) | Al-Annabi (The Maroons) (العنابي), Al-Ad'am (الادعم) |
|---|---|
| Association | Qatar Football Association |
| Confederation | AFC (Asia) |
| Sub-confederation | WAFF (West Asia) |
| Head coach | Jorge Fossati |
| Captain | Hassan Al-Haidos |
| Most caps | Sebastián Soria (120) |
| Top scorer | Mansoor Muftah (53) |
| FIFA code | QAT |
| FIFA ranking | |
| Current | 85  (9 February 2017)
|
| Highest | 51 (August 1993, October 1993) |
| Lowest | 113 (November 2010) |
| Elo ranking | |
| Current | 72 (24 February 2017) |
| Highest | 51 (September 2001) |
| Lowest | 135 (April 1975) |
| First international | |
 Bahrain 2–1 Qatar  (Bahrain; 27 March 1970) |
|
| Biggest win | |
Qatar 15–0 Bhutan  (Doha, Qatar; 3 September 2015) |
|
| Biggest defeat | |
 Kuwait 9–0 Qatar (Kuwait; 8 January 1973) |
|
| Asian Cup | |
| Appearances | 9 (first in 1980) |
| Best result | Quarter-finals, 2000 and 2011 |
The Qatar national football team is the national team of Qatar and is overseen by the Qatar Football Association. The team has appeared in nine Asian Cup tournaments and Qatar also hosted the 2011 Asian Cup. They play their home games at Khalifa International Stadium and Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium. The latter is the home stadium for the team.
Football was brought to Qatar during a time which coincided with initial discovery of oil reserves in Dukhan in 1940. By 1948, expatriate oil workers played the first official football match in Qatar. The Qatar Football Association was formed in 1960, and the QFA joined FIFA in 1970. Simultaneously during this period, the Bahrain Football Association were drawing up plans for the establishment of a regional football competition within the GCC and Qatari officials were involved with the corroboration of this proposal. The plans came to fruition and in March 1970 the Gulf Cup of Nations was inaugurated.
The Qatar national team played its first official match on March 27, 1970 against hosts Bahrain, losing 1–2 as Mubarak Faraj scored the sole goal for Qatar. The newly formed Qatar national team posted underwhelming results in the first Gulf Cup tournament, coming in last place with a single point, with the highlight of their tournament being a 1–1 draw with the Saudis in their final match.
In the next edition of the Gulf Cup in 1972, Qatar was again relegated to last place after suffering 3 straight defeats. The next tournament in 1974 proved to be somewhat of a break-through for the Qataris as they achieved their first triumph in international football with a 4–0 victory over Oman. The Qataris lost out to Saudi Arabia in the semi-finals, but achieved a 3rd place standing after emerging the victors of a penalty shoot-out against UAE.
...
Wikipedia