Tiny Qatar Joins the Big Leagues

We’ll admit that we’re kind of armchair geography nerds. We dig looking at maps and globes and learning about places far from home. This interest fits in nicely with our employer’s business and with our love of football, which is truly the most global game in existence today.

Take the example of Qatar. Sure, we knew it was somewhere in the Middle East (a peninsula off of Saudi Arabia to be precise), but we didn’t know that the small country is quickly developing a fairly decent football league with some imported players that you might even know.

What would attract players like Nigeria’s Jay-Jay Okocha, Ecuador’s Carlos Tenorio, and Australia’s Tony Popovich to go play in Qatar?

The answer is money, of course. The Qataris are flush these days with oil revenues and they are investing their money in the 10-team Qatar Football League. Each team reportedly has more than $10 million allocated to attract at least four big name imports to come play in their modern stadiums. Probably not the worst place to play if you are player on the tail end of your career looking to make some bank and play in a league where the football pressure is not too great and where you can pad your stats.

Some Related Stories:

Category: World Football