Sir Mo Farah and his wife Tania have decided to switch their residency from the UK to Qatar, having lived in Doha with their children for the past few years
Sir Mo Farah has officially moved his family from the UK to Qatar permanently, despite the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. Farah has lived with his family in Doha since 2024 and has now changed his residential status.
The 43-year-old and his wife Tania have four children: stepdaughter Rihanna, twin girls Aisha and Amani and son Hussein. They moved to Doha, the capital of Qatar, after his retirement from running, and are now making it official.
The Sun reports that Farah has switched his residential status from the UK to Qatar in paperwork for his company, which has assets of £3.9million and paid £375,000 in tax and VAT in 2023. By moving his residency to Qatar, the four-time Olympic gold medallist will be exempt from tax.
The shift comes at a time when the Middle East is engulfed by a war between Israel and the United States and Iran. Qatar has been dragged into the conflict, with Iran targeting the country’s energy facilities with drones.
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More than 100,000 Brits have fled the Middle East to return to the UK since the war started over a month ago. Farah and his family have a house in Weybridge, Surrey, and are no strangers to the dangers of war, having witnessed aggression between the US and Iran last summer.
Speaking to The Telegraph in July, after a recent Iranian missile strike on a US base in Qatar, he said: “It’s much safer than London. I started to worry, living in London, because you can educate your kids as much as you can, but if they get in the wrong place at the wrong time, you see a lot of stuff happening. That’s a worry.”
Farah moved to the UK from Somalia as an eight-year-old and he his family lived in Portland, Oregon, for seven years during his athletics career. He has previously explained that the move to Qatar was made for his children to be able to grow up away from the glare of celebrity public life.
He told The National in November: “I went to watch the World Cup [in Qatar in 2022], England played the USA, and then I watched the semi-final, watched the final, took my kids out there. My family absolutely loved it and, for me, I’ve always said when I do stop running, I want to spend quality time with my family.
“It wasn’t always the plan to go. [It wasn’t] ‘I’m in the UK, I want to move.’ It just naturally happened and it’s about being able to be happy and enjoy yourself.”
He added: “It’s what I wanted to do. I’ve always said that when I do stop [running], I want to have quality time with my family. I was away six months of the year, away from them, and now it’s about being able to give back to my kids, support them in whatever they want to do.
“So, again, if my kids are happy and they want to do something different, you just go out there and support them. But I’m enjoying myself. It’s a lot easier, we can go down the street and I can be with my family, and I can do remotely what I do for my job.”