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Spain refuses Qatar’s request for riot police at World Cup

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FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Preview – Doha, Qatar – October 13, 2022 World Cup branding seen on an escalator inside the Mall of Qatar REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed/File Photo

Spain will not send riot police to Qatar to help safeguard the upcoming soccer World Cup as had been requested by the Middle Eastern country, the Spanish interior ministry said on Friday.

The ministry would not provide any further comment on the decision, and only confirmed an earlier report on Cadena Ser radio, which said Spain had been mulling whether to send around 115 officers to Qatar but ultimately refused.

With a population of less than three million – of whom just 380,000 are Qatari nationals – Qatar faces a shortage of personnel as it gears up for the month-long FIFA soccer tournament kicking off on Nov. 20.

Last month, Turkey announced it would send more than 3,000 riot police to help Qatar stage soccer’s showpiece event.

Qatar has come under severe scrutiny from human rights groups over its treatment of migrant workers in the run-up to the tournament.

-Reuters

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Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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