The King Salman Cup witnessed strong Gulf presence and the Saudi clubs are the luckiest

The new and modified version of the Arab Cup for Champions Clubs was launched in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which witnessed multiple changes, as its name changed to the King Salman Cup for Arab Clubs, and its preliminary rounds began with the participation of 37 clubs, and after the qualifiers, 16 clubs participated in the combined finals (6 of the qualifiers, 4 were chosen by the Arab Federation, 6 of the 6 best-ranked leagues in the December 2022 ranking, and 3 Saudi cities hosted the combined finals through 4 groups, each of which included 4 clubs.

The tournament started on July 27 and ends on August 12, and after the first round of the group stage, during which no features were determined for the levels of the Gulf clubs, as Al-Sadd opened the tournament with a goalless draw against Moroccan Wydad Casablanca, and Al-Hilal also tied negatively against Al-Ahly Tripoli of Libya, and Al-Nasr tied with Al-Shabab. Also without goals, while Al-Ittihad Jeddah achieved its first victory against one of the largest African clubs, Esperance de Tunis, 2/1, and Al-Wehda beat Kuwait, 2/1.

With the start of the second round, the Gulf clubs began to show their sharp fangs against African clubs, so Al-Ittihad achieved its second victory in the championship against Tunisian Sfaxien with a clean goal, and Al-Nassr achieved a great result against Al-Ittihad of Monastir 4/1, Al-Shabab defeated Zamalek 1/0, and Al-Wehda won against Chabab Belouizdad 2/1, while Al-Sadd of Qatar defeated Al-Hilal of Saudi Arabia 3/2, and the Iraqi Al-Shorta tied against Esperance of Tunisia, negatively.

With the third and final round of the group stage, the Qatari Al-Sadd, Al-Hilal Saudi Arabia, Al-Ittihad Jeddah, Al-Shabab Al-Saudi, Al-Nasr Al-Saudi, and the Iraqi Al-Shorta, and the Emirati Al-Wehda (despite the 0/1 loss against Al-Raja), were on a date with qualifying and completing the tournament’s journey, so that the number of the Gulf clubs in the quarter-finals 7, including 4 Saudi Arabia.

With the tournament entering the pre-final stage, 4 Gulf clubs qualified for the golden square, including 3 Saudis, to confirm beyond any doubt the great development witnessed by the Gulf football, especially in front of the African Arabs, the champions of the brown continent, and confirm the clear dominance of Saudi clubs, where Al-Hilal won. Al-Ittihad defeated Jeddah 1/3, Al-Shorta defeated Al-Sadd 2/4, Al-Nasr defeated Al-Raja 3/1, and Al-Shabab defeated Al-Wahda 5/4 on penalties, which means that the Arab championship in this version took on a purely Gulf character.