With the US attention more focused on soccer than ever before, the US should seek to leverage lessons learned about the role of global engagement in National Team development from the 2022 World Cup Host.
In the fourth round of the 2026 Asian Football Confederation’s (AFC) Asian Qualifiers, two well-timed headers secured Qatar’s 2-1 victory against the UAE and their place in the 2026 FIFA World Cup. After a disappointing 2022 tournament in which the Qatari hosts lost each match of the group stage, this was the first time that the Maroons qualified for the World Cup finals on merit. Ranked number 55 in the world by FIFA, the team reasserted itself into the continental spotlight by defending its 2019 Asian Cup with a repeat championship in 2023.
Away from the home crowd pressure and having already met their “big goal” of qualifying for the 2026 tournament, the Qataris find themselves in the relatively weak Group B (featuring Switzerland, Canada, and Bosnia & Herzegovina). Beyond having secured their first ever World Cup points with a dramatic draw against Switzerland, they will look to capitalize on long odds to advance to the round of 32.
Despite the ignominy of their previous performance, Qatar’s 2022 hosting duties can be credited for their recent AFC dominance. Continued talent development via the state backed Aspire Academy, widespread Qatari investments across global soccer, and critical partnerships for growing the domestic game have fortified the Maroons’ place atop Asia.
The 2026 co-host United States should take note. When the World Cup spotlight focuses on the United States men's national soccer team (USMNT), the US will hope for a memorable performance affirming improvements to its development system. US professional soccer will also capitalize on the opportunity to highlight the domestic market to a global audience. With these goals in mind, Qatar’s path up to the 2022 World Cup and through 2026 offers valuable lessons.
Aspirations
The history of soccer in Qatar is brief. Introduced by oil workers from India and northern Arab states in the late 1940s, the Qataris adopted the game through small regional tournaments. In 1960, the Qatar Football Association (QFA) was formed and joined FIFA in 1963 and later the AFC in 1967. The first official season of the Qatari League (rebranded as the Qatar Stars League, or QSL in 2009) was played in 1972 and since then, it has evolved into a competitor of the Saudi and UAE pro leagues.
When Qatar was awarded World Cup hosting duties in 2010, the Maroons were ranked number 113 in the world. So, like the venues constructed in preparation for 2022, the QFA needed to develop a national team from scratch. However, Qatar’s population of around 3 million (of which only about a tenth are considered citizens) limited its home-grown talent pool in comparison to its competition. To overcome this, roster builders have historically relied heavily on naturalized talent playing in the QSL. The 2026 roster features 12 foreign-born players out of a squad of 26, while 25 of the 26 represent Qatari clubs.
The reliance on foreign-born players, however, has not tempered the Qatar Football Association’s motivation to develop home grown talent through its state-backed Aspire Academy. Unlike the club academies that scatter the European soccer landscape, Aspire Academy was established by a 2004 decree of Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani and has since become the cornerstone of the country’s development pipeline. Its facilities also serve as the central hub for the Qatar national team and QFA programming.
Sponsorship agreements from companies including New Balance and Korean sports tech company Fitogether supplement a baseline of state funding including a 1.4 billion USD initial investment in 2004 for the construction of the academy’s seven outdoor pitches, indoor climate-controlled arena, and facilities ranging from sports science laboratories to student dormitories. With an estimated annual revenue of over 55 million USD, the academy provides full athletic and academic scholarships to all students, each of whom, Aspire states, are born in Qatar or of Qatari descent.
Beyond its operations in Doha, the academy has developed an extensive network of international soccer organizations through a program known as the Aspire in the World Fellows. Members of this network include clubs such as Arsenal, FC Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain, and Real Madrid. It also features 14 national federations, including US Soccer. The network manifests in global summits designed to exchange knowledge on topics ranging from tactical philosophy to sports tech integration. The most recent summit was held in October 2025 at Subaru Park in Philadelphia, home of the MLS’ Philadelphia Union.
The Aspire in the World Fellows serve multiple purposes for the Qatar Football Association. First, according to the Academy itself, by “[creating] a platform to gather and synergize the know-how of worldwide expertise…for the management and modern training methodology of youth football players,” the network centers Qatar in conversations around emerging player development practices while also shaping the curriculum of the academy in Doha. For a small Gulf Arab country that lacks the extensive soccer traditions of Europe or South America, this network helps address critical gaps in the QFA’s institutional knowledge.
Additionally, the network broadens Qatar’s global soccer influence beyond direct investment. While Qatar Sports Investments (QSI), a shareholding company closely linked to the country’s sovereign wealth fund, manages a vast soccer portfolio, it is represented by just three of the 34 clubs in the Aspire network. Qatar’s influence through the Aspire in the World Fellows goes beyond shareholder status and provides the country an additional layer of legitimacy when navigating the global soccer landscape.
Though the long-term impacts of the academy are still taking shape, it has become clear that Aspire will receive much of the credit should Qatar enjoy success at the 2026 World Cup. In 2022, 70 percent of the national team were academy graduates. The figure nears 100 percent for Qatar’s teams in age-restricted tournaments including the Olympic Games and U23 regional championships. If Qatar can continue its early tournament success and defy the odds to advance beyond the group stage, fans should expect storybook performances star left winger Akram Afif and Qatar’s all-time leading goal scorer Almoez Ali, both products of Aspire Academy.
Rising Stars
At the conclusion of the 2022 World Cup, FIFA signed a memorandum of understanding with the Qatar Stars League. Outlined in the MoU, FIFA offered support to QSL franchises through initiatives designed to improve club governance and management, raise the level of competition on the pitch, streamline matchday operations, optimize revenue generation, and refocus franchise marketing and community outreach efforts. Specifically, FIFA offered “bespoke assistance…workshops in multiple business areas…transfer of knowledge from leading international leagues,” as well as their involvement “in the collection and analysis of club data.”
Since 2022, the Qatar Stars League has thrived as a top league in the Middle East, even with the precipitous rise of the Saudi Pro League just across the border. In 2025, the QSL was ranked as the sixth most competitive league in the Asian Football Confederation and fourth in the AFC’s western region. FIFA’s partnership with the QSL came at a time when the AFC revamped its international club competition as the AFC Champions League Elite. Since the restructuring of the AFC’s elite club competition in 2024-25, the QSL has received an allocation of three tournament seeds - the most allowed for any first-tier soccer league in Asia and on par with the allocation for larger countries such as China, Japan, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, and the UAE.
The partnership with FIFA has also been a boon to the QSL’s league and franchise valuations. According to Transfermarkt, a German-based soccer database owned by Axel Springer SE, the QSL’s market value increased from an estimated 176.58 million Euros in 2021-22 to 322.78 million Euros in 2025-26, without expanding beyond its 12 first division teams.
The league’s most valuable club, Al-Sadd SC, experienced an increase in valuation from about 25.08 million Euros to 61.43 million Euros over the same period. Each club in the league’s first division saw growth, including smaller clubs such as Umm Salal SC (whose valuation more than quadrupled from 4.28 million Euros to 17.33 million Euros). Clubs have also capitalized on state-of-the-art venues originally constructed for the World Cup to host league games to increase fan attendance, including at Ahmad bin Ali Stadium (Al-Rayyan SC) and Al Janoub Stadium (Al-Wakrah SC), each with a seating capacity of over 40,000.
An additional testament to the league’s growth since the 2022 World Cup has been the influx of new sponsorship agreements. A title sponsorship from Doha Bank signed in 2025 and partnerships with global brands such as Adidas (2024) and TikTok (2023) have underwritten the league’s financial stability. In turn, growing league revenues have allowed QSL franchises to execute major transfer agreements to import players such as Marco Verratti (to Al-Arabi for a fee of 45 million Euros in 2023-24) and Claudinho (to Al-Sadd for a fee of 20 million Euros in 2024-25) from overseas.
In 2026, all but one member of the Maroons play professionally in the Qatar Stars League. Ironically, this may pose a challenge for the national team’s success. The United States’ 1998 World Cup experience, for example, represents a cautionary tale for domestic centralization. After Major League Soccer was launched in 1996, the league recruited American talent back from overseas to play on its rosters and, in 1998, the squad featured 16 MLS players out of 22. However, due to the league’s inability to prepare players with levels of competition that they may have otherwise found overseas, the team bombed out in a winless campaign, scoring just one goal across three games. Since 1998, fewer and fewer USMNT starters represent professional clubs in the MLS, and in 2026, just two of the team’s projected starters play domestically.
While the QSL’s growth since the 2022 World Cup has increased fandom and bolstered the domestic soccer economy, the Qatar Football Association must also ensure that Qatari-born talent is not kept from high quality foreign competition. Should fans of the Maroons expect sustained future World Cup success, Qatari soccer will need to strike a balance between national team representation in the QSL and the departure of native stars for overseas club competition.
Present and Future
The Maroons’ leadup to the 2026 World Cup was rocky. Uninspiring performances in friendlies against El Salvador and Ireland, plus a cancellation against Sudan, left Qatari fans anxious about a repeat of 2022. Spaniard head coach Julen Lopetegui had few opportunities to manage and make adjustments to his roster since being hired in May 2025, and a reliance on aging veterans, such as team captain Hassan Al-Haydos, presents potential weaknesses that a younger Canadian squad may exploit during what may be a “must-win” match on June 18.
Despite the long odds of a deep run, expectations have risen for Qatar since their World Cup debut. No longer just “happy to be there,” there is a real opportunity for the Maroons to advance should they continue to collect points against Bosnia & Herzegovina and Canada (who have also never advanced from the group stage). Beyond this year’s tournament, the 2034 World Cup will be seen as a defining test for Qatari development: new home-grown talent will have fully replaced the old guard to lead what is hoped to be a deep run in neighboring Saudi Arabia. Respectable performances in 2026 and climbing the ladder through 2030 will help put this goal in reach.
So, what does this mean for the United States, who are following in Qatar’s footsteps as this year’s World Cup co-host? Can the lessons learned by a Gulf Arab country of 3 million people translate to the growth of soccer in the world’s preeminent sporting economy? What does US soccer have to gain from the Qatar’s 2022 World Cup legacy, when the Maroons battle to advance beyond the group stage while anything less than a quarterfinal appearance for the USMNT would be a disappointment?
Just as Qatar reinforced in its pipeline with huge investments in Aspire Academy following the 2022 World Cup, the US should use the 2026 World Cup and its legacy to redouble its focus on youth talent development. While academies - private or state-backed - are not common in the US, no other country boasts the unique asset of collegiate soccer. However, a proliferation of misalignments with the global soccer environment have prevented NCAA men’s soccer from developing true star power in the past. In 2025, the US Soccer Federation and its NextGen College Soccer Committee outlined actionable recommendations in a white paper including a move away from the fall-only season to a full academic year schedule, the implementation of regionalized competition structures, and the modernization of eligibility rules to ensure that the prioritization of player development. While America’s attention is more focused on the game of soccer than ever before, it is essential that these improvements be instituted to elevate the collegiate game.
Improving US national team facilities and improving accessibility for youth programs have also been top priorities. In May 2026, the Arthur M. Blank US Soccer National Training Center became US Soccer’s first central headquarters in the federation’s existence, funded by a 50 million USD lead gift from the Atlanta United owner. The National Training Center will also serve as a place to identify and develop young talent and, as such, US Soccer must find ways to ensure that elite programming remains accessible. Before it folded in 2020, the US Soccer Development Academy granted millions of dollars’ worth of scholarships to children competing in the Development Academy’s youth league. Now, with new funding and sponsorship opportunities materializing as co-hosts of the World Cup, US Soccer has an opportunity to rebuild its scholarship program to even greater heights. Just as the Qataris have fully subsidized the enrollment of all students at Aspire Academy, US Soccer will have increasing bandwidth and backing to ensure that participation in elite youth programming is financially supported across the board.
Finally, Major League Soccer and other domestic leagues must sustain fan engagement in the US beyond the World Cup. In the past, the MLS isolated itself from global soccer by playing on a different season calendar, operating away from global transfer windows, governing matches by different sets of rules, and eschewing a promotion and relegation system. While these differences have caused significant friction between the league and FIFA in the past, the World Cup and the 2025 Club World Cup have already facilitated cooperation on a host of issues. These include newly adopted rules of the game, regulatory alignment on player release clauses and special registration windows, and operational partnerships necessary for the execution of the tournament. FIFA has demonstrated a commitment to growing leagues via formal agreements such as its partnership with the Qatar Stars League. However, cooperation between FIFA and the MLS is unlikely to rise to the level of an MoU. Still, there are opportunities for FIFA and MLS executives to connect during the World Cup on key areas for improvement such as the transfer of knowledge across leagues, and the collection and analysis of club data.
