The Gulf Arab Cup competition in its twenty-fifth edition “Gulf 25” will begin next Friday and will last until January 19 this year, which will be hosted by the city of Basra, Iraq, with the participation of 8 international teams.
The tournament draw placed the teams of Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman and Yemen in the first group, while the teams of the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait entered the second group.
The history of the Persian Gulf Cup, the idea of which was developed by His Royal Highness Prince Khalid Al Faisal, was presented to the President of the International Federation by the delegation of the State of Bahrain Football Association, headed by Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa. FIFA” in 1970 AD, when the first Cup was held. The team became the first champion of the tournament.
The Gulf Cup is held every two years in a tournament system, as the number of participating teams increased to five teams in the second tournament in 1972, then the number of teams increased to six teams in the third edition of the tournament in 1974, then to seven teams in the 1976 edition. And the development of the Gulf Cup continued until the number of participating teams reached eight teams in the 2004 Gulf Cup, which was held in the capital of Qatar, Doha, into two groups.
The Kuwait national team is considered the most titled team in this championship, with 10 championships, and it was in the years (1970, 1972, 1974, 1976, 1982, 1986, 1990, 1996, 1998, 2010), and the runner became the champion once, for it is followed by the team of Saudi Arabia which has held 3 championships in a few years (1994, 2002, 2003) and it is the team that has come second in the championship 7 times while the team of Qatar has won the championship. years (1992, 2004, 2014) and was runner-up four times.
While the Iraqi national team has 3 copies in their championship (1979, 1984, 1988) and has been runner-up twice in the championship, while the UAE team has achieved the championship twice in a few years (2007, 2013) and runner-up. four times while the Oman team has won the championship twice in years (2009, 2017) in addition to being runner-up twice in the championship and the Bahrain national team has won the championship once in 2019 and runner-up four times .
While Kuwait’s Jasem Yacoub is the tournament’s top scorer with 18 goals, he is followed by Saudi Arabia’s Majed Abdullah and Iraq’s Hussein Saeed with 17 goals, while Kuwait’s Jasem Al-Khuwaidi and Faisal Al-Dahil with 14 goals.
