By David Gold
July 18 – The Qatar Football Association (QFA) has lost an appeal against the decision to strip them of a point won in an Olympic men’s football qualifier against Oman.
Qatar were punished for fielding midfielder Abdelaziz Hatim (pictured above, centre), who was meant to be serving a suspension for receiving two yellow cards in his previous games.
The game ended 1-1 but Oman were awarded a 3-0 win as a result of the infringement of the rules by FIFA.
Qatar took the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) but it has concluded that FIFA’s actions were correct.
The lost point ended up proving crucial as Qatar missed out on qualification for London 2012.
They finished one point behind Oman in their group, whereas if the original result would have stood they would have been two clear of their rivals.
Oman instead took the crucial place in the subsequent round of Asian qualifiers.
They then went on to make it to the final qualifying match for the Olympics, where they lost to Senegal 2-0.
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