The history of the Gulf participation in the Arab Cup

Tomorrow, Tuesday, November 30, 2021, the Arab Cup, hosted by Doha, will start a year before it hosted the Qatar 2022 World Wedding. The idea of establishing the Arab Championship began from Beirut in 1962, when the idea was proposed by George Debbas, the former president of the Lebanese Federation, and called for a general assembly meeting of the Arab federations. For football, at first, 5 countries were enthusiastic about the idea, which were the nucleus of the first edition of the 1963 tournament, namely Lebanon, Kuwait, Syria, Jordan, and Tunisia.

The tournament, which was held over the past years without being recognized by the International Federation, suffered intermittently, as it witnessed a 16-year hiatus, and was not completed at other times, for several reasons.

The participation of the Gulf states came in the past nine editions of the tournament, since the second edition, when Iraq and Kuwait joined the participating teams.

Despite the varying Gulf participations, Iraq was the betting horse and the trump card, as it topped the golden record of the tournament with four titles for four consecutive copies, from five participations for the Lions of Mesopotamia, which included 25 matches, during which the Lions of Mesopotamia won 16 matches, drew in 8, and lost one match.

The Saudi Green comes in second place, as it achieved two titles of the championship, and runner-up once, through 6 participations, in which he played 26 matches, won 13 matches, drew 7 and lost 6 matches.

Kuwait recorded 8 participations in the tournament, during which it played 30 matches, winning 10, drawing 6, and losing 14 matches, and during those participations it did not succeed in achieving the title or runner-up.

Bahrain recorded 5 participations, during which it played 21 matches, winning 3 and drawing 9 times, and losing 9 times, achieving the runner-up twice.

Yemen participated in 3 editions of the tournament, during which it played 10 matches, winning one, drawing one, and losing 8 matches.

Qatari Al Annabi achieved two participations, during which it played 8 matches, winning 4, drawing two, and losing two, but it achieved the runner-up in one of the two participations.

The Emirati white also participated in a single edition, during which it played 4 matches, won one, and lost 3 matches.

The new edition of the tournament, which is being held for the first time with the recognition of the International Federation (FIFA), will witness the first participation of the Omani national team, in a version that includes 16 teams.