Fascinating this – I never knew we’d faced Qatar in a friendly back in 1975.
In fact, I’m always interested when we meet ‘international’ opponents. It hasn’t happened often – a couple of matches against Dutch XIs are about your lot, as well as a game against a Canada touring XI in the 1800s.
They didn’t qualify in 1978; in fact, they had to wait until hosting the World Cup in 2022 before they got a shot at competing.
This makes great reading, from their interpretation of fouls to their World Cup aspirations. They did enter the 1978 qualifying stage, beating Bahrain 2-0 in March 1977. The UAE withdrew, meaning they played Bahrain twice, losing the second game, as well as losing both matches against Kuwait.
