Given the level of focus on the Qatari regime, its attitudes toward human rights, immigrant workers, the LGBTQ community — and beer — the World Cup host’s soccer team has slipped under the radar.

Qatar opens the tournament against Ecuador on Sunday, but even the build-up to that match has been overshadowed by Friday’s announcement that the sale of beer will be banned inside the stadium grounds.

The World Cup is a source of immense national pride for Qatar in its attempt to raise its profile on the global stage and drive toward modernization. But what about the team?

Qatar has never before appeared in a World Cup and face a major challenge just to emerge from Group A, which also includes Senegal and The Netherlands. South Africa in 2010 is the only host nation to fail to get beyond the group stage, so to avoid sharing that distinction would be success in itself.

Sunday may be Qatar’s best hope for a victory against an Ecuador team that is only five places above it at No. 44 in the Fifa rankings.

United front

Qatar’s players have long been preparing together for the big game and coach Felix Sanchez said on Saturday that he hoped the “massive sacrifices” they had made to be tournament-ready would pay off.

Qatar paused its Stars League in September to allow the international players to train together and play several friendlies to prepare for the World Cup.

That involved the players, who all feature in Qatar’s domestic league, spending several weeks away from their families and Sanchez praised their commitment to improve as a squad together.

“Obviously everything we’ve done in the past three years is to have a very competitive team in the World Cup. Every country’s situation is different and we’re a small country,” Sanchez told reporters.

“All our players play in the local league, so we decided one of the ways to strengthen the national team was to... make massive sacrifices and spend long periods abroad.

“This shows the commitment of our players. All the time spent abroad training and competing is for tomorrow, November 20, so we can start the competition well.”

For Castillo

Ecuador too have a point to prove. Byron Castillo will not be on the pitch on Sunday but the defender will be there in spirit as a symbol of the adversity the South American side faced just to get to Doha.

The 44th-ranked Ecuadorians punched their way into the fourth and last spot from arguably the world’s toughest qualifying campaign, overcoming challenges on and off the field that resulted in Castillo being left off coach Gustavo Alfaro’s squad.

The Ecuadorean Football Federation (FEF) decided not to include Castillo after Chile took a claim to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) that he had been ineligible to play in World Cup qualifying matches because his true nationality was Colombian.

Although the claim was dismissed, the disputes body ruled that Ecuador would lose three points ahead of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers and be fined 100,000 Swiss francs ($106,000) for using a document containing false information.

Not wanting to risk any further legal challenges, Alfaro made the painful decision not to call up Castillo.

“If you had only seen the pain that Byron had to endure,” recalled Alfaro during Saturday’s media conference. “If you had seen the pain from the whole squad, the love from the squad towards Byron.

“Byron for us is a symbol and he will be with us on the pitch tomorrow even if he is not there.”

Written with inputs from AP/PTI & Reuters