According to President of the Qatar Cycling Federation Sheikh Khalid Bin Ali Al-Thani, the Tour of Qatar has applied for a place in the WorldTour in 2017. He took this decision in part due to the absence of top-level races in February.

"We have applied to the UCI to be upgraded to the WorldTour and we hope that we have a good chance because we are the first and oldest tour in the region," he told Cyclingnews. "So if the WorldTour is coming to this area, it should come here first. We have good confidence in that. We are trying to go WorldTour to bring the level up. The race will continue, whether it’s WorldTour or HC. We did not sign the contract [for the race’s continuation in 2017] yet but it will be signed. We have a green light on that one."

Even if the Tour of Qatar organizers want to upgrade their race, ASO have threatened to withdraw its events from the WorldTour calendar in 2017.

"ASO for us are technical management for the race, it has nothing to do with their problem. The Tour of Qatar is not ASO, they don’t sell it, so we deal with them on a different level. It will not affect our relationship with ASO if we are WorldTour or not", the president concluded.