It would be football where he secured one of Qatar’s biggest – and controversial – triumphs.
The country was awarded the right to host the 2022 World Cup in 2010, despite allegations of corruption it was later cleared of.
It hired 30,000 foreign labourers just to build the stadiums. In 2021 it was reported some 6,500 migrant workers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka had died since it won the World Cup bid.
The Qatar government said not all the deaths recorded were of people working on World Cup-related projects and many had lived there a long time.
There was also criticism over Qatar’s human rights record and laws against same-sex relationships.
Qatar was a British protectorate until 1971, with the Al Thani family as monarchs since 1851.
