“Gulf 26” hosted by Kuwait in December 2024

Kuwait will host the twenty-sixth edition of the Gulf Cup in football in December 2024, according to what the Arab Gulf Cup Federation announced today in Doha. In its general assembly, which includes eight member states, the regional federation, which was established in May 2016, decided to hold the Gulf Championship, which began in 1970, in December 2024.

A month was also given to the Gulf federations to apply to be an alternative to Kuwait in the event that it is not possible to reside there. The federation renewed the election of its current Qatari president, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa bin Ahmed Al Thani, and his vice-president, Salem Al-Wahaibi, president of the Omani federation, for a new four-year term. And the president of the Gulf Federation confirmed in the press conference that followed the General Assembly that “the date of the Gulf Cup Championship has been changed from December 26, 2023, to December 2024, so that no federation will participate in the second row.”

Qatar will host the Asian Cup early next year, which would not have been a stumbling block to the teams’ participation in the Gulf Cup in the first row, given its coincidence with the preparations for the continental championship. Sheikh Hamad also revealed the formation of a committee to develop the championship regulations, headed by Qatari Secretary General Jassim Al-Rumaihi. The President of the Gulf Federation pointed out that there is an item in the regulations that allows the participation of teams from outside the Arab Gulf Cup Federation, but the issue is conditional on the approval of the General Assembly, but he added, “From my purely personal point of view, I do not see that the time is right to add other teams now.”

Kuwait, whose blue team holds the championship records with ten titles, is preparing to host the Gulf gathering for the fifth time after the years 1974, 1990, 2003 and 2017. In turn, Al-Rumaihi confirmed to AFP that Kuwait is ready to host the next edition, noting that coordination is underway to build a new stadium to be added to the main stadium.
The Iraqi national team won its fourth title in the tournament during the last edition, which it hosted at home in the southern province of Basra last January, 44 years after Baghdad hosted the Gulf 5 in 1979. The Arab Gulf Cup Federation was established in 2016, after a series of preparatory meetings that began in 2015. His first work is organizing Gulf 23 in Kuwait in 2017.