AFC Asian Cup 2019: Saudi Arabia vs Qatar more than a clash of football cultures with geopolitics set to play out on the pitch

Ordinarily, a meeting between Omar Hawsawi and Hassan Al-Haydos wouldn’t raise many eyebrows across the world. Even when they do next meet, on January 17, most won’t notice or care. However, as the two shake hands, their encounter will be hugely symbolic, potentially fractious, and closely watched by many.

Hawsawi is likely to captain Saudi Arabia and Al-Haydos will probably fulfil the same role for Qatar when the two nations’ football teams play against one another in their countries’ Asian Cup clash, which will take place in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.

Since June 2017, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have been engaged in a feud that, at one level, is the result of simmering, long-running tensions between the two. At another level, it reflects government attitudes in Riyadh towards its counterpart in Doha, which were emboldened by Donald Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia in May of that year.

The consequences of this stand-off have been bitter, sometimes juvenile, but also hugely damaging to the Gulf status quo and to the region’s image and reputation. From Saudi Arabia’s public relations proxy war and its threat to dig a channel between the two countries to Qatar’s bullish, ostentatious spending, it has been a bruising confrontation.

And the spat is ongoing. In December Qatar’s Emir snubbed an invitation to attend a Gulf Cooperation Council summit in Riyadh (diplomatic relations between the two countries have been severed since June 2017). In the same month, Qatar announced that it will leave OPEC (the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries).

Although a gas-rich country, oil has provided a dwindling contribution to the Qatari economy. For Doha to walk away from a group in which Saudi Arabia plays a major part merely adds still further to the deepening rift now blighting the Gulf region.