By Hatem Maher
June 25 (Reuters) - Qatar's second World Cup appearance ended with another group-stage exit, leaving the Asian champions facing a familiar question: where does the country's ambitious football project go from here?
There were signs of progress in North America. Qatar earned their first World Cup point with a gritty 1-1 draw against Switzerland, who topped Group B, suggesting Julen Lopetegui's side could finally compete with established football nations.
But the optimism proved short-lived.
A 6-0 defeat by Canada laid bare the gap between Qatar and the tournament's stronger teams before a 3-1 loss to Bosnia and Herzegovina consigned them to another first-round exit, this time with one point from three matches.
Four years after becoming the first hosts to lose all three matches at a World Cup, Qatar again depart before the knockout rounds despite two decades of heavy investment in infrastructure, youth development through the Aspire Academy and the recruitment of foreign-born players eligible to represent the national team.
If the tournament exposed Qatar's limitations against elite opposition, it also highlighted a challenge that may define the next phase of the country's football project.
Qatar arrived with an average squad age of almost 29 years, while 10 of their 26 players were over 30.
Veteran captain Hassan Al Haydos, 35, even returned from international retirement last year, underlining the continued reliance on a core that has driven the country's greatest successes.
That group delivered back-to-back AFC Asian Cup titles and helped transform Qatar into one of Asia's leading football nations.
Now, however, a changing of the guard appears inevitable.
Lopetegui acknowledged as much after Wednesday's defeat by Bosnia, urging Qatar's younger players to learn from a generation that may be approaching the end of their international journey.
"Unfortunately, most of them have a lot of age," the Spaniard said. "I don't know if this will be the last match for some of them, but the young players have to learn and take this example for the future."
The former Spain coach nevertheless insisted the campaign represented progress, pointing to Qatar's first World Cup point and a performance against Bosnia that he believed deserved more.
"It has been very, very positive," he said. "Never happened in the history that we achieve one point."
The draw against Switzerland offered a glimpse of what Qatar can achieve. The defeats that followed served as a reminder that sustained success at World Cups will depend not only on continued investment, but on whether a new generation can build on the legacy of the players who put Qatari football on the map.
(Reporting by Hatem Maher, Editing by Ken Ferris)
