FIFA reportedly received an integrity alert suggesting Qatar’s national team was receiving an alarming number of penalties in its warm-up matches for the World Cup.
Sportsmail reported one of the sporting body’s integrity partners contacted them about “an unusually high number of penalties” awarded in Qatar’s pre-World Cup friendlies.
Many of the friendlies were not televised or streamed.
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“The integrity alert is understood to have warned FIFA of suggestions that a high number of spot-kicks were awarded to ensure that Qatar achieved positive results in the tournament build-up, although it adds that this claim cannot be verified,” the report stated.
“FIFA’s integrity warning also notes that even their match monitoring partners have struggled to unearth data on the games in question.”
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Qatar has played 11 warm-up matches this year, after not needing to go through the Asian qualifying competition because it was automatically awarded a spot in the tournament as hosts.
The team finished with a record of five wins, four draws and two losses, but they have won their last four matches heading into the World Cup.
That included a 2-0 win over Guatemala where Qatar scored from penalties in the 38th and 40th minutes.
In September Qatar lost 3-0 to Croatia’s under-23 side.
Back in 2021, Qatar made the semi-finals of the FIFA Arab Cup, with their 5-0 quarter-final win over the UAE including two penalties and an own goal.
They also made the semi-finals of the Gold Cup in the United States, with their 3-2 quarter-final win over El Salvador seeing the decisive goal come from a penalty.
Qatar is hoping to avoid being just the second host nation to be knocked out of a World Cup in the first round, following South Africa in 2010.
They face Ecuador, the Netherlands and Senegal in Group A.
