Criticism of the World Cup in Qatar should concern racing chiefs as the sport continues to rely on Middle Eastern cash

WELL, it’s almost here.

The Qatar World Cup is upon us and the opening match will be played next weekend.

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Since they were controversially handed the tournament in 2010 (where have the last 12 years gone?) by Fifa, the tiny Gulf state has been firmly under the microscope.

Whether it be the human-rights abuses of the regime, the deaths of thousands of migrant workers or the fact that being gay is a ‘crime’ which potentially carries the death penalty, it ain’t pretty.

The organisers had been trying to make the right noises earlier in the year, but the mask has slipped recently, particularly over some outrageous comments on homosexuality from a World Cup ‘ambassador’.

The tournament, Fifa and the host nation have rightly come in for widespread criticism in the media, as well as from players and fans.

But it has got me thinking over the last few days about racing and our image in the wider world.

After all, our sport has come to rely on billionaires from countries like Qatar, so much so that if they upped and left tomorrow, the sport would collapse quicker than Liz Truss in a head-to-head with a lettuce.

We don’t so much as turn a blind eye to it as openly encourage investment from the likes of Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

The World Cup host nation is a huge player in British racing and has tens of millions worth of sponsorship deals, as well as dozens of racehorses.

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The Bahrainians are growing in influence and this year the billionaire playboy Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa won the St Leger, the oldest of the five British Classics, with Eldar Eldarov.

And each year when the Saudi Cup rolls around, our top trainers and jockeys willfully bury their heads in the sand and blow smoke up the organisers backsides.

Sheikh Mohammed has been in the news for all the wrong reasons in recent years, and if one day he decided to scrap Godolphin, Flat racing would take years to recover.

His all-conquering trainer Charlie Appleby, and the now smaller operation of Saeed bin Suroor, employs hundreds of people in Newmarket.

And at the Tattersalls Sales last month, the ruler of Dubai spent a whopping £26 million on new stock, more than double anyone else.

We’ve become nearly totally reliant on tainted cash.

I’d like to think that the widespread and justified criticism of the 2022 World Cup makes racing chiefs break out in a cold sweat, but I doubt it.

Is there a way we can buck the trend? No, is the short answer. The sport sold its soul a long time ago and there is no getting it back.

Many of racing’s high-profile participants, who just happen to be on the payroll of the Sheikhs, say we should shut-up and be grateful for their investment.

That doesn’t mean that we – myself included – shouldn’t grow something resembling a backbone and at least ask these people some uncomfortable questions.

I’m reminded of the brilliant Emma Banks quote after her Lady Bowthorpe finished third on Champions Day at Ascot: “I’m the only person here without an oil well.”

That is the way of the world in British Flat racing now – but we have to stop closing our eyes and putting our fingers in our ears and pretending this isn’t an issue. It is.

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