Qatari football faces no immediate threat from the country's diplomatic crisis but huge questions will loom for the Gulf state's 2022 World Cup plans if relations do not improve with its neighbours.
Four Arab nations, including Gulf Cooperation Council partners Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, have cut diplomatic ties with the oil-and-gas-rich country, accusing it of destabilising the region.
They claim Qatar is funding militant groups which operate in their countries, such as Al-Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood and the so-called Islamic State, which Qatar denies.
There is no doubt, however, about the seriousness of this move for Qatar, a small, desert state that sits on a peninsula in the Arabian Gulf, with a land border with Saudi Arabia to the south.
With that border closed and most of Qatar's neighbours now denying it access to their airspace, all building projects on the peninsula face enormous uncertainty. The most high-profile of those projects is the construction of venues and related infrastructure for the World Cup in five years' time.
A spokesperson for FIFA said world football's governing body " is in regular contact" with the tournament's organising committee but declined to comment any further.
Press Association Sport has made repeated attempts to contact the organising committee and the Qatari FA but without success.
In terms of more pressing football matters, there are no Qatari clubs left in the Asian Football Confederation's (AFC) Champions League and Qatar's next qualifier for the 2018 World Cup in Russia is at home against South Korea on June 13.
Qatar are currently bottom of their qualifying group, with only South Korea, Syria and China to play. They would need to win all three of those to have any hope of reaching a play-off that may see them play Saudi Arabia or UAE for a place in Russia.
In regards to how Qatar's international relations may impact preparations for the Middle East's first World Cup, the AFC declined to comment.
Source: PA
