Because we love international competitions for national teams, because many of the participating players make a living as padel instructors and, because we will be in Dubai enjoying the world championship live, we will bring you a series of articles about the XVI Padel World Championship, Dubai 2022 - 37 days to go

Let's comment on an important aspect of the Asia-Africa qualifiers whose outcome and implications may be affected by the change of venue from Doha (Qatar) to Dubai (UAE) announced ten days ago by the International Padel federation - FIP .

This sudden change of venue from Doha to Dubai, which also takes place after the Asia-Africa qualifiers, raises a curious situation that is still pending resolution (or at least the solution has not yet been communicated).

The current scenario:

• The Qatar men's team qualified directly for the finals as hosts (and therefore did not participate in the qualifiers).

• Qatar has, as it did last year, decided not to field a women's team, thus leaving a free spot in the selected group of 16 countries.

• Both the UAE men's and women's teams participated in the qualifiers but did not achieve the desired qualification to the finals.

The questions that arise:

• Will the Qatari men's team participate in the World Championship? They are no longer the host team and therefore would not have a place for that reason.

• Do the Emirati men's and women's teams have a place, as it is their right as host country? They should, otherwise it would be a huge anomaly which the host country would find difficult to accept.

• If the Qatar men's team is finally not allowed to participate, it would not be fair either, as they have not had the opportunity to participate in the qualifiers which, by the way, they won last year!

• If the Emirati teams finally participate in the finals, how will the women's group look now that we have one more directly qualified team, and does it affect the places awarded by the various continental qualifiers?

It is easy to imagine the illusion and excitement of all the members of the Emirati teams on learning that they will be the host country and that this will give them the chance to take part in their World Championship, at home, in front of their families, in front of their people.

If for us, who live it from the stands, it is an unforgettable experience, for them it must be something unique and incredible.

And we can also imagine the more than possible disappointment, frustration and helplessness that all the members of the Qatari men's national team may experience at not being able to participate in the World Championship, and not even being able to earn their place in the qualifiers as they did last year.

Of course, a possible satisfactory solution for both Qatar and UAE would be for their teams to get a place in the selected group of 16 countries that will participate in the finals.

But this would directly affect one other country that has already earned its place or is on the way to doing so.

All in all, it seems a complicated situation for which we look forward to a (prompt?) solution from FIP.

By WOP - WorldofPadel.com

In the next article we will comment on the European qualifiers taking place next week from 29th to 2nd October in Derby, UK.