The Arabian Gulf Cup is a football tournament that takes place every two years, and is hosted each time by one of its member states.

The first edition of this competition was held on March 27, 1970 in the Kingdom of Bahrain, with the participation of 4 countries, then the rest of the Gulf countries joined, in addition to Iraq, which was excluded after the invasion of Kuwait in 1991 and the outbreak of the Second Gulf War, Yemen also joined in the 16th edition, and Iraq returned in Version 17 in 2004.

Origin and establishment

The credit for organizing the Arab Gulf Cup for Football goes back to the State of Bahrain when a delegation from its federation headed by Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa presented the idea to the former President of the International Football Association (FIFA), Englishman Stanley Rouse, during the 1968 Mexico Olympics, and he received every encouragement and invited him. To lay the initial foundations for this sporting event.

The idea of ​​​​the Gulf Cup championship originally belonged to the Saudi Prince Khaled Al-Faisal, who proposed it about 34 years ago, and Bahrain adopted it and turned it into a reality.

Bahrain invited the Gulf countries affiliated with the International Federation at the time (Saudi Arabia and Kuwait) to hold a meeting on June 19, 1969 at the headquarters of the Bahrain Municipality to discuss a draft of the tournament system. At Isa Town Stadium, starting on March 27, 1970.

Qatar participated in the first session under special permission from FIFA because it had not yet entered the International Federation at the time.

As for those who approved the project, they are: Ibrahim Al-Shami from Saudi Arabia, Ahmed Al-Saadoun from Kuwait, Abdul Aziz Bouzair and Ahmed Ali Al-Ansari from Qatar, Sheikh Muhammad bin Khalifa, Saif Jabr Al-Muslim, Abdullah Al-Shorouki and Jamil Jawad Al-Habashi from Bahrain.

On the sidelines of the first session, a meeting was held for the representatives of the national teams, during which some paragraphs of the general system of the championship were amended, if it was decided to hold the session every two years instead of one year, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was chosen to host the second session.

One of the paragraphs stipulated that the team that won the cup 3 times would keep it forever, provided that the teams then compete for a new cup, as is the case in the World Cup.

Basra International Stadium in Iraq, where the 25th Gulf Championship will be held in January 2022 (Shutterstock)

History

In 1970, the first edition of the Gulf Cup in football was held, hosted by the Kingdom of Bahrain, and 4 countries participated in it, namely Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, the champions of that edition.

In the second championship in 1972 - which was hosted by Saudi Arabia - the number of member states increased to 5 after the accession of the United Arab Emirates, and for the second time Kuwait was crowned champion of that version.

In the third edition in 1974, which was hosted by Kuwait, the number of member states increased to 6 with the accession of the Sultanate of Oman, and Kuwait also won the cup for the third time.

Iraq joined in the fifth edition and hosted the tournament in 1979, bringing the number of participating countries to 7. Iraq was able to win the title of champion in this edition, ending 4 years of Kuwaiti monopoly, then won the title for the second and third time in the 1984 and 1988 editions.

Qatar (host of the edition) stopped the Kuwaiti-Iraqi series of victories in 1992, which lasted 22 years, after winning and winning the Gulf Cup title, noting that the Iraqi national team was prevented from participating in the tournament because of the second Gulf War.

In the 16th edition hosted by Kuwait in 2003, Yemen joined, bringing the number of participating countries to 7, and Saudi Arabia won in that edition, and in the 17th edition in 2004, which was held in Doha, the number of competing teams became 8 again after Iraq returned to the competition, and Qatar won that edition for her second title.

In the 18th edition, which was held in the UAE in 2007, the UAE was crowned the Gulf Cup champion for the first time.

In the 19th Gulf Cup in 2009, the Sultanate of Oman, the host of that edition, was able to obtain its first cup.

Logo of the Arab Gulf Cup Football Federation (Al-Jazeera)

Arabian Gulf Cup Football Association

The Arab Gulf Cup Football Federation is a regional football federation that includes the eight member countries. It was established in May 2016. It manages everything related to the Arabian Gulf Cup.

Discussions began in several preparatory meetings in 2015 under the name of the "Gulf Football Association", and Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa bin Ahmed Al Thani from Qatar was chosen as its first president, and Sheikh Salem bin Saeed Al Wahaibi from Oman as vice president, in addition to members representing each federation of countries. The remaining members, and Doha was determined to be the headquarters of the federation.

Gulf 25

The extraordinary general assembly of the federation decided that the 25th Gulf Championship would be held in Iraq in the city of Basra, with Kuwait being the alternative country, after the executive office of the Gulf Football Federation agreed to grant Iraq the right to host.

Basra was supposed to host the "Gulf 21", but it was transferred to Bahrain in 2013 and the postponement has been repeated more than once, for reasons some of which are security and some related to the lack of readiness to host.

The Gulf Championship returns to Iraq after an absence of 42 years, as it hosted this tournament only once, in 1979, and was crowned with the title after winning all the tournament matches.

The Gulf Cup Federation approved the two stadiums, Basra International (capacity 65,000 spectators) and Al-Mina (30,000 spectators) to hold the “Gulf 25” matches, and they are two stadiums located within the Sports City in Basra.

Basra also includes an advanced medical center, a group of modern hotels to house the teams, a training ground, and commercial and entertainment centers. The cost of implementing the sports city amounted to nearly one billion dollars.