The draw for the Persian Gulf Cup took place on Tuesday in the Iraqi city of Basra, which Iraq hosts for the first time in forty years, and resulted in a fierce confrontation between the “Lions of Mesopotamia” and Saudi Arabia.
In the presence of the President of the Gulf Cup Federation, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, as well as delegations of eight teams participating in the tournament, scheduled from January 6 to 19, the teams were divided into two groups.
The first group included Iraq, the owner of the land, as well as Saudi Arabia, Yemen and the Sultanate of Oman, and the second group included Bahrain, the title holder, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, which will host the 2022 World Olympiad. Cup next month.
The Gulf Cup is held every two years and the first edition was held in Bahrain in 1970 and Qatar hosted the last edition in 2019 in which Bahrain won the first title in its history.
In mid-September, the executive office of the Gulf Arab Cup Federation directed Iraq to complete the completion stages of the International Port Stadium (30,000 capacity), which will be the second state-of-the-art stadium in the oil-rich southern city in the region, which is witnessing an occasional wave of popular protest due to the low level of domestic services, after the Basra International stadium.
Iraq hosted the Persian Gulf Cup for the first time in 1979 in the capital Baghdad at the Al Shaab International Stadium and was awarded the title of the fifth edition. The reception of the Persian Gulf Cup by Iraq was interrupted more than once due to problems with security, on the one hand, and the preparation and preparation of Iraq, on the other. In 2014, the 22nd Gulf Championship was moved to Saudi Arabia by decision of the heads of the Gulf federations, after it had been scheduled in Iraq.
