Road to the 24th Arabian Gulf Cup – Historical Overview (2-3)

The 24th Arabian Gulf Cup in Doha is coming up soon. A few days are separating us from the Gulf matches, which used to bring the people of the Gulf to a fair competition under the umbrella of the saying “our Gulf is one and our people are one”.

Gulf 9 – Riyadh smiling to Iraq

The Gulf Cup returned to its second host Riyadh in the tournament held in March 1988. Teams continued to participate in the tournament, the games of which were played at King Fahd International Stadium in Riyadh with a system of one-role league.

Stadium: King Fahd International Stadium.
Period: 2-18 March 1988.
Matches: 21 matches.
Goals: 34 goals.
Winner: Iraq.
Top scorer: Emirati Zuhair Bakheet and Iraqi Ahmed Radi (4 goals).
Player of the tournament: Iraqi Habib Jaafar.
Best Goalkeeper: Omani Yousef Obaid.

In this tournament, again, Kuwait’s team was disappointed allowing the lions of Mesopotamia (Iraqi team) to win the title fairly and squarely after the victory over Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, and the draw against Oman and United Arab Emirates.
Iraq scored 8 goals and received a single goal. This tournament witnessed as well the first Omani win in the history of the Gulf tournaments vs Qatar (2-1).

Gulf 10 – Two drop-outs

The 10th Arabian Gulf Cup edition was held in Kuwait, the icon of the Gulf tournaments, in February 1990. The tournament witnessed two historic events.
The first was the withdrawal of Saudi Arabia before the start of the tournament, as well as the withdrawal of Iraq after its match against UAE which canceled all its results.

Stadium: Friendship and Peace Stadium in Kuwait Club.
Period: 20 February – 9 March 1990.
Matches: 10 matches.
Goals: 21 goals.
Winner: Kuwait.
Top scorer: Kuwaiti Mohamed Ibrahim (5 goals).
Player of the tournament: Emirati Nasser Khamis.
Best goalkeeper: Kuwaiti Samir Saeed and Bahraini Hammoud Sultan.

The Kuwaiti team returned to the front and managed to achieve the title after beating UAE (6-1), Qatar (2-0), Bahrain (1-0) and a draw against Oman (1-1).

Gulf 11 – Qatar breaks the strike

After the 22-year tournament was preserved to Kuwait and Iraq, Qatar broke this strike in the tournament hosted by Doha at Khalifa International Stadium in 1992, with an exceptional generation of Qatari players.
Iraq was absent from this tournament and continued its absence for 12 more years.

Stadium: Khalifa International Stadium.
Period: 27 November – 10 December 1992.
Matches: 15 games.
Goals: 30 goals.
Winner: Qatar.
Top scorer: Qatari Mubarak Mustafa (3 goals).
Player of the tournament: Qatari Mubarak Mustafa.
Best goalkeeper: Bahraini Hammoud Sultan.

Qatar ended the Iraqi-Kuwaiti strike with a historic generation, most notably the best player in the tournament and the scorer Mubarak Mustafa, “Al-Sinyari”, Mahmoud Sophie, Adel Al-Mulla and Adel Khamis.
Qatar achieved the title by defeating Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait and United Arab Emirates, while the last round loss by the Awaran goal did not affect its title.

Gulf 12 – Saudi Arabia shines for the first time

United Arab Emirates hosted the championship for the second time at the Zayed Sports City Stadium in November 1994 with the participation of six teams.

Stadium: Zayed Sports City Stadium.
Period: 3-16 November 1994.
Matches: 15 games.
Goals: 34 goals.
Winner: Saudi Arabia.
Top scorer: Saudi Fouad Anwar and Qatari Mahmoud Sophie (4 goals).
Player of the tournament: Emirati Mohammed Ali.
Best goalkeeper: Mohsen Musabbeh.

For the first time in the history of the Gulf tournaments, Saudi Arabia said its word and won the first championship after a long wait, following the victory over Oman, Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait and a draw (1-1) with the host country.
A historic generation arrived to the World Cup in America with the most prominent players: Saeed Alowairan, Fahd Almohal, Sami Al Jaber and Fouad Anwar.

Gulf 13 – Kuwait, once again

Oman hosted the first Gulf Cup in Sultan Qaboos Sports Stadium in Baushar, in October 1996 with the participation of six teams as usual.
The competition remained fierce between Qatar and Kuwait up to the finish line until the winner team said its word and achieved the Gulf championship for the 8th time.

Stadium: Sultan Qaboos Sports Stadium in Baushar.
Period: 15-28 October 1996.
Matches: 15 games.
Goals: 35 goals.
Winner: Kuwait.
Scorer: Qatari Mohammed Salem Al Enezi (4 goals).
Player of the tournament: Kuwaiti Abdullah Wabran.
Best goalkeeper: Qatari Younis Ahmed.

The 8th Kuwaiti title was not easy, but needed the intervention of the Czech Milan Machala, who then involved the young Bashar Abdullah against Qatar in the final round of the championship to bring happy news to the Kuwaiti fans that invaded the sports complex with a (2-1) win.

Gulf 14 – The Blue hits strongly

The Gulf Cup tournament landed for the third time in Manama through the fourteenth championship, which was held in 1998.
Kuwait made one of the strongest performances and crowned the title for the ninth time.

Stadium: Bahrain National Stadium.
Period: 30 October – 12 November 1998.
Matches: 15 games.
Goals: 40 goals.
Winner: Kuwait.
Top scorer: Kuwaiti Jassim Al Huwaidi (9 goals).
Player of the tournament: Kuwaiti Bader Hajji.
Best goalkeeper: Saudi Mohammed Al – Deayea.

Despite being beaten (2-1) by Saudi Arabia in the first match, Kuwait won 4 consecutive matches, scoring 17 goals against Oman, Bahrain, UAE and Qatar to win its ninth title.

Gulf 15 – A second title for Saudi Arabia

After the 14th edition in Bahrain in 1998, the tournament was stopped for more than three years for the first time, but returned in January 2002 through the 15th edition, which was held at King Fahd International Stadium in Riyadh which ended by Saudi Arabia winning the tittle.

Stadium: King Fahd International Stadium.
Period: 16-30 January 2002.
Matches: 15 games.
Goals: 33 goals.
Winner: Saudi Arabia.
Top scorer: Omani Hani Aldhabit (5 goals).
Player of the tournament: Qatari Jaffal Rashid.
Best goalkeeper: Saudi Mohammed Al – Deayea.

Fifteen minutes before the end of the match, the time was pointing to a second Qatari title, but Al Akhdar turned the table and scored three goals by Abdullah Al-Jamaan, Talal Al-Meshal and Saleh Al-Mohammadi to change the championship compass towards the Green.

Gulf 16 – New Guest

Gulf 16 was very unique because it was the only tournament held between 2003 and 2004. It is also the first tournament in which Yemen participated with a political decision from the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Saudi Arabia said its word at the end after a remarkable Bahraini performance and a Kuwaiti disappointment.

Stadium: Kuwait Club Stadium.
Period: 26 December 2003 – 11 January 2004.
Matches: 21 matches.
Goals: 46 goals.
Winner: Saudi Arabia.
Top scorer: Bahraini Talal Yousef (5 goals).
Player of the tournament: Bahraini Mohamed Salmeen.
Best goalkeeper: Omani Ali Al Habsi.

Despite Bahrain’s brilliant performance, Saudi Arabia’s experience ultimately settled the situation, led by their rising stars Yasser Al Qahtani, Mohammed Al Shalhoub, Abdullah Al Waked, Reza Tucker, Mabrouk Zayed, Saud Kreiri, Hamad Al Montashari, Mohammed Noor and Ibrahim Sweid.
Saudi Arabia achieved their title by only one point difference from Bahrain.