Qatar's French coach Philippe Troussier said on Thursday his job of transforming the Persian Gulf state into a major football force was so tough it reminded him of a Hollywood movie.

"I have taken this team in a commando spirit - it is my Dirty Dozen project," said Troussier referring to the Robert Aldrich war movie where a group of no-hope soldiers are spirited away from prison cells to take part in a do-or-die wartime mission.

The 48-year-old Troussier, who took Japan to the second round of the World Cup last year and who has been in charge at Qatar for just five weeks, has been handed the task of taking the team to the Gulf Cup, Asian Cup and the World Cup finals in Germany in 2006 - a feat the tiny oil and gas-rich state has never managed in the past.

Troussier, who was preparing his team for a friendly against Algeria here on the west coast of France on Thursday, admits that having also coached Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso and South Africa, this could be his toughest job yet.

"There is no football culture in Qatar," said the man nicknamed the White Witch Doctor.

Qatar's native population is just 300,000 out of a 700,000 total and where the domestic football league is made up of a 10-team top-flight and six-team second division.

"The football federation is very rich but the team is a poor relation. It's necessary to build an identity.

"When you ask a Qatari player why he has chosen this life, he sometimes says it is to make a living, because he has seen it on television but there isn't really a career plan behind it all.

"To go and play abroad isn't a priority.

"There is a lack of maturity amongst the players. The coach has to be a nanny and a policeman."

Troussier has not held back in his criticism of the standard of the Qataris hitting out at the squad's lack of technique.

The squad is also a cosmopolitan mix - only four or five players are of Qatari stock while the majority are from neighbouring Arab states and have become naturalised.

Furthermore, the coaching and technical staff in the country, now ranked by FIFA as 80th in the world, is drawn from Morocco, Tunisia and France.

"I am not convinced that Qatar can reach the world's top 40, but I think we can spring a surprise on a game-by-game basis," added Troussier whose first competitive outing as coach will come on September 14 when Qatar face Kuwait in a Group B Asian Cup qualifier.

Singapore and Palestine make up the group.