Player naturalisation The Qatari national team
naturalized a large number of foreign players to their squad for the
2015 World Men's Handball Championship. According to IHF rules, to gain eligibility for a new national team, a player cannot have played for another nation for three years in an official match. This allowed several foreign-born players, including Spanish-born
Borja Vidal,
Goran Stojanović and
Jovo Damjanović from Montenegro, and
Bertrand Roiné who previously played for France, to play for the Qatar team at the championship. Head of the Qatar Handball Federation, Ahmed Mohammed Abdulrab Al Shaabi, acknowledged the policy in a statement in June 2013, saying "We're a small nation with limited human resources, so we had to bring players from outside in the past." He also announced an end to the policy at the time, adding however that they "[might] make an exception only in the case of an experienced goalkeeper." In January 2014, Danish
sports agent Mads Winther said he had met with "contacts involved with Qatar" regarding the possibility of naturalising Danish players. The practice was criticised by Austrian goalkeeper
Thomas Bauer after his team's loss to Qatar in the quarter-final, saying "It [felt] like playing against a world selection team" and "I think it is not the sense of a world championship." At a press conference during the championship, Qatar head coach
Valero Rivera declined to comment on the matter.
Paid fans Qatar flew in about 60 Spanish fans to cheer for Qatar during the
2015 World Championship.
Accusation Refereeing favouritism The referees were widely accused of being one-sided in favour of Qatar during its success, 2nd place in the
2015 World Championship. Especially at the last-16 encounter against
Austria, the quarterfinal against
Germany and the semi-final against
Poland. After the final whistle, the Polish players showed their disgust by sarcastically applauding the three referees. ==References==