Football fever set to grip region with Gulf Cup

Abu Dhabi: All the uncertainty surrounding the Gulf Cup has been put to rest and the region’s biggest football extravaganza will get under way starting today.

The Gulf Cup usually played every two years will see the national teams from the UAE, Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen in action.

Kuwait stepped in at the last minute to save the event from falling apart after the political fallout of other GCC countries with Qatar put the tournament under cloud.

Kuwait was originally scheduled to host the event last year, but that country’s football association was suspended by Fifa in October 2015 over alleged government meddling in sports.

After Kuwait’s suspension, the tournament was switched to World Cup 2022 host Qatar. But, the tournament received a setback with Qatar facing isolation since June 5 with the neighbouring countries including Saudi Arabia, UAE and Bahrain over alleged support to terrorist groups.

Desperate attempt to get all the nations to play the tournament in Doha failed to bear fruit last month and Saudi, UAE and Bahrain were all set to withdraw from the competition.

Thankfully, Fifa lifted the ban over Kuwait early this month after their parliament adopted new laws to end government interference and they immediately seized the opportunity to host the event.

Kuwait have won the tournament a record 10 times in all since its inception in 1970.

This time round, however, the hosts have their task cut out as the Fifa ban has severally affected their football scene in the past two years. The Kuwait Football Association (KFA), at the last minute, has roped in Boris Bunjak the Al Jahra football team manager as coach for the Gulf Cup challenge.

For defending champions Qatar these are testing times as well. Those contests are going to be fierce and high octane clashes.

Qatar, who has won the event three times since its inception and defeated Saudi Arabia 2-1 in the final of previous edition in 2014 held in Saudi, will open their campaign with a match against Yemen on Saturday. They then meet Iraq on December 26 and play their last Group B match against Bahrain on December 29.

Qatar coach Felix Sanchez, late on Wednesday, announced a balanced side. Hassan Al Haidous, Abdelkarim Hassan, Karim Boudiaf and goalkeeper Saad Al Sheeb are some of the experienced players in the team. Promising youngsters like Akram Afif, Ahmed Moein and Mohamed Muntari also form a part of the squad.

Saudi Arabia have turned their focus to youth and have shown coach Edgardo Bauza the door. In a surprise move, they have also roped in Croatian coach Krunoslav Juric instead of Juan Antonio Pizzi, who was recently named as Bauza’s successor. As many as 14 Saudi players are expected to be making their international debut at the Gulf Cup.

Six young players, born in Saudi Arabia to foreign parents, have been included. Hammam Al Ajaj, Ali Al Nimr and Ali Yahya, whose families have Yemeni origins and Ahmed Ashraf born to Egyptian parents, have also been included in the squad. It will be interesting to see how far the Saudi’s can go in the tournament. Vitesse mid-fielder Mukhtar Ali and Virginia Cavaliers mid-fielder Faris Abdi both will be missing the tournament because of their club commitments.

Bahrain have never won the Gulf Cup. The national team’s best finish has been runner-up four times, including in its inaugural year, then in 1982, 1992 and in 2003. They will be keen to set the record straight this time around but it will be a Herculean task. In the last edition, Bahrain had failed to make it through to the knockout stage and had to settle seventh overall among eight teams. They played a goalless draw in a friendly against Kuwait at the National Stadium in Riffa and hopefully coach Miroslav Soukup would have gauged the level of readiness of his players for this event.

With years of political instability, Iraq have been left to train and play their international fixtures away from home. The last of their three Gulf Cup titles came as far back as 1988 and their recent best performance in the tournament was in 2013 when they reached the final. They will certainly aim to make some impact in this tournament.

Yemen are another team struggling to make any sort of presence in the tournament over the years. They are the only team other than Bahrain who have not won the Gulf Cup till date. Yemenis are aiming to take giant strides in football if they can manage to qualify for the 2019 AFC Asian Cup to be held in the UAE. However, for that, they will have to get past Nepal in the contest next year in March. This tournament will be ideal for them to build a strong team keeping the Asian Cup in mind.

Kuwait and Saudi Arabia will kick off Group B in the first game of the tournament at the Jaber International Stadium at 6.30 UAE time, before Oman and the UAE face off in the second match of the day at 9pm.