Gulf football fans, who will be following the 26th edition of the Arabian Gulf Cup “Gulf 26”, which begins today in Kuwait, are looking forward to watching an exceptional edition in all technical and organizational aspects.
The current edition of the tournament is considered a major challenge for Kuwaiti football and the tournament organizing committee, as it comes after “Gulf 25,” which was held in the Iraqi city of Basra last year, and witnessed a distinguished organizational success and large public attendance. The current edition of the Gulf Cup, which runs until next January 3, has five technical and organizational scenes:
Global regulation
The organizing committee of “Gulf 26” assigned the organization of the tournament in general and the opening ceremony in particular to the international company L’Oréal, which supervised the organization of the World Cup finals in Qatar 2022, which confirms that the tournament will have a wonderful organization according to the best international specifications that qualifies it to be one of the best Gulf tournaments since. Long years.
Host luck
Expectations indicate that the Kuwaiti team (the host country) does not have a great chance of winning the championship title, based on the results achieved by Kuwaiti Blue in various matches in recent years, and based on the difference in technical capabilities with the rest of the other teams. However, this is not a measure due to the difficulty. Expectations in Gulf Championships.
International classification
According to the latest classification of football teams issued by the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA), Qatar is ranked 48th in the world, followed by Iraq 56th, Saudi Arabia 59th, the UAE 63rd, followed by Oman 80th, Bahrain 81st, Kuwait 134th, and finally Yemen 158th, but winning the title “ Gulf 26” is not subject to these classifications, as the tournament is accustomed to presenting surprises in every tournament turn.
World Cup participations
Five teams in the “Gulf 26” have previously participated in the World Cup finals. Saudi Arabia has participated the most in the World Cup, six times, then the teams of Kuwait, Iraq, the Emirates, and Qatar, once each, while the teams of Oman, Bahrain, and Yemen did not qualify.
Solid number
It will be difficult to break the record of the best scorers in previous tournaments, recorded by the Kuwaiti Jassim Yaqoub (18 goals), or to come close to the Iraqi Hussein Saeed and the Saudi Majid Abdullah, each of whom has 17 goals, due to the absence of UAE national team striker Ali Mabkhout, who has 13 goals in the tournament. Gulf Championships, as well as the absence of a player from other teams in the list of the top 20 scorers in the tournament.
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