War-hit Qatar still plans to host Argentina-Spain game with Messi and Yamal for UEFA

UE­FA still plans for Qatar to stage the Ar­genti­na vs. Spain game known as Fi­nalis­si­ma this month even as the emi­rate is tar­get­ed by Iran­ian mis­siles in the widen­ing Mid­dle East war start­ed by Is­rael and the Unit­ed States.

“At present, there are no al­ter­na­tive venues be­ing con­sid­ered,” UE­FA said on Thurs­day about the sched­uled March 27 game in Do­ha be­tween the reign­ing cham­pi­ons of South Amer­i­ca and Eu­rope in a like­ly matchup of Li­onel Mes­si and Lamine Ya­mal.

“A fi­nal de­ci­sion is an­tic­i­pat­ed to­wards the end of next week,” said the Eu­ro­pean soc­cer body which or­ga­nizes the game with South Amer­i­can coun­ter­part CON­MEBOL.

Ar­genti­na and Spain are due to play at Lu­sail Sta­di­um that staged the epic 2022 World Cup fi­nal. Ar­genti­na won a penal­ty shootout against France af­ter Mes­si scored twice and Kylian Mbap­pé got a hat track in a thrilling 3-3 draw.

Qatar has close re­la­tions with UE­FA. Its top soc­cer of­fi­cial Nass­er Al-Khe­laï­fi, the pres­i­dent of Qatar-owned Paris Saint-Ger­main, is a mem­ber of the UE­FA ex­ec­u­tive com­mit­tee.

“Dis­cus­sions are on­go­ing with the lo­cal or­ga­niz­ers who have made a huge ef­fort to make the match a suc­cess,” UE­FA said.

If Do­ha is too much of a se­cu­ri­ty risk to host the game, it could be moved to Spain or else­where in Eu­rope where near­ly all the play­ers in the two squads are based.

The first Fi­nalis­si­ma was at Wem­b­ley Sta­di­um in Lon­don in June 2022. Ar­genti­na and Mes­si beat Italy 3-0.