Kuwait will host the upcoming Gulf Cup for the fifth time following previous tournaments in 1974, 1990, 2003, and 2017.
The Kuwait Football Association has revised the dates for the 26th Gulf Cup Championship, announcing it will now be held from December 21, 2024, to January 3, 2025, however, no specific reason was provided for the change.
Kuwait will host the Gulf Cup for the fifth time, following 1974, 1990, 2003, and 2017.
A country with a rich football history, Kuwait holds the record for Gulf Cup titles, having won the championship ten times.
Last in January, after Iraq organised and won the 25th Gulf Cup for the first time since 1988, Kuwait was announced to take over the reins.
The 26th Arabian Gulf Cup will be the 26th edition of the biennial football competition for the eight members of the Arab Gulf Cup Football Federation, which sees Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman, Yemen, and Bahrain.
Qatar has won the tournament thrice in 1992, 2004, and 2014.
Last year, the Maroons bowed out of the Arabian Gulf Cup on Monday after a tough semi-final match against Iraq at Basra International Stadium.
Football’s political warfare
Iraq’s hosting was acclaimed for more than one reason. For the first time since 1979, the Arab country was hosting a major global event.
From 1990 to 2003, the Gulf Cup tournament was held six times, none of which included Iraq.
The move came as Iraq projected an invasion of Kuwait in 1990, ultimately getting placed under a ban from the Gulf Cup tournament until joining once again in 2003.
Citing inadequate infrastructure and FIFA’s ban on Iraq from hosting international matches due to security concerns, the country, for a long time, was continuously stood up by the organising committee.
The 2013 tournament was initially scheduled to be hosted in Iraq but was changed to Bahrain, triggering fury from the Iraqi cabinet, which pulled the nation’s team from the tournament.
The Ministry of Youth and Sport at the time criticised the decision as being politically motivated and expressed its disappointment, according to Reuters.
“It has become manifestly clear that the reason for moving the [tournament] from Basra to Jeddah is political and taken under intense pressure from Saudi,” read a statement from the ministry at the time. “Saudi Arabia and others are conspiring behind closed doors against Iraq and the sports [of Iraq].”
The hostility between Saudi Arabia and Iraq at the time dates back to Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990, which sparked the Gulf War, in which the Arab Kingdom fought alongside other nations to force Iraq back.
Relations with Kuwait improved from the moment of the invasion to around the time of the decision in 2013 to transfer the 2014 hosting bid of the Gulf Cup to Saudi Arabia, though some divisions remained.
