Gulf 9.. Iraq is the champion and Omani scores the first victory

The ninth Gulf Cup was held in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, from 2 to 18 March 1988, with the participation of 7 teams, Saudi Arabia (the host country), Kuwait (the defending champion), the Emirates, Bahrain, Iraq, Qatar, and Oman.

The tournament was held in a single group system, and the events of all matches took place at King Fahd International Stadium in the city of Riyadh, and the Iraqi national team was crowned with the title, by winning 10 points, then the UAE came in runners-up with 8 points, Saudi Arabia third with 7 points, Bahrain fourth with 6 points, and the Kuwaiti blue came fifth with the Qatari Al-Annabi which came sixth, with a difference in goals, then the Omani Red is seventh, with three points.

The Iraqi Ahmed Radi and the Emirati Zuhair Bakhit won the title of top scorer in the tournament with 4 goals, while the Iraqi Habib Jaafar won the title of best player, and the Omani goalkeeper Youssef Obaid won the title of best goalkeeper.

After Kuwait owned the Gulf Cup twice as a result of winning the title 6 times, Saudi Arabia presented the new cup and it was a wonderful masterpiece that cost half a million Saudi riyals.

This cup was won by two countries, the first was Iraq in the ninth round, then Kuwait in the tenth round, until Qatar presented an additional cup that was handed to a winner and kept to record the anniversary of his victory. With this cup so far, Qatar in 1992, then Saudi Arabia in 1994 in the Emirates.

The session was full of wonderful artistic as well as historical events, the most important of which was the Oman national team achieving its first victory in the Arab Gulf tournaments since its inception, which was achieved against Qatar 1/2, scored by Younis Aman and the late Ghulam Khamis, while the Qatar goal was scored by Mansour Muftah.

The opening ceremony included the launch of balloons bearing pictures of Their Majesties and Highnesses, leaders of the Arab Gulf states in the sky of Riyadh. The opening ceremony and the tournament were broadcast live with about 16 television cameras distributed throughout the stadium. On display are pictures of King Fahd, King Abdulaziz, Prince Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, Head of the National Guard, and welcome slogans such as “Welcome to your country” in silver and red.

The teams participating in the tournament were supervised by: Brazilian George Vittorio (Oman), Englishman George Armstrong (Kuwait), Brazilian Carlos Alberto (UAE), Porquebeo (Qatar), Iraqi Amo Baba (Iraq), and Uruguayan Omar Aburas (Saudi Arabia).

The tournament witnessed the return of the Qatari player Mansour Muftah, the star of Qatar, who was absent from the national team list in the Gulf 8, and the return of Bahrain’s star goalkeeper, Hammoud Sultan.

In the ninth round, 21 matches were played, and the number of goals scored reached 34 goals, and this percentage is very slight due to the closeness of the level.

In the ninth session, 5 penalty kicks were awarded, three of which were awarded to the UAE national team.

The first goal scored in the tournament was for the Saudi Fahd Al-Harifi in the goal of Oman, and the last goal was for the Iraqi Laith Hussein in front of Bahrain, and it was also the fastest goal of the tournament.