DOHA: The Qatar Football Association (QFA) yesterday announced that the national side will base its camp at St George’s Park in England for the first phase of training ahead of the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
The training camp will also be part of the preparation for the 2019 Asian Cup, QFA said.
The camp will be run from May 26 to June 4.
The 2019 FIFA World Cup will be held in Russia while the 2019 Asian Cup will be hosted by the United Arab Emirates.
Qatar, coached by Djamel Belmadi (pictured), will be playing two friendly matches also during the summer camp.
St George’s Park is the English Football Association’s national football centre on a 330 acre site at Burton-upon-Trent, Staffordshire.
The centre was officially opened by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on October 9, 2012.
The 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying games begin on June 11 while the AFC Asian Cup qualifying draw will be announced in Kuala Lumpur on April 14.
THE PENINSULA
ZURICH: Qatar are ranked 109 in the world, according to the latest FIFA rankings announced in the Swiss city yesterday.
Qatar, coached by Djamel Belmadi, was ranked at the same spot in February also. Macedonia are ranked above Qatar at 108 with 308 points. Al Annabi have 300 points.
Sudan are ranked a notch below Qatar with 288 points.
Meanwhile, European champion Spain has fallen out of the top 10 in FIFA’s rankings for the first time since 2007.
World Cup winner Germany is still number one, ahead of Argentina, Colombia, Belgium and the Netherlands.
The only change in the top 10 was Italy leapfrogging Spain into the 10th spot.
None of the elite teams played in the last month but games played earlier in the four-year cycle of results lost ranking value.
Romania rose two places to number 14 and could be seeded when European qualifying groups for the 2018 World Cup are drawn in July. Costa Rica remained at number 13 to lead the CONCACAF nations. The United States fell one spot to number 32.
Algeria, at number 18 lead the African nations and Iran is Asia’s best at number 42.
THE PENINSULA
