# 26th Arabian Gulf Cup

The 26th Arabian Gulf Cup, known as Khaleeji Zain 26 for sponsorship reasons, was the 26th edition of the Arabian Gulf Cup for the eight members of the Arab Gulf Cup Football Federation. The tournament was held in Kuwait from 21 December 2024 to 4 January 2025.
Bahrain won the competition for the second time, beating Oman 2–1 in the final.

## Teams

| Team | Appearance | Previous best performance | FIFA Rankings |
| Team | Appearance | Previous best performance | November 2024 |
| Qatar | 26th | Winners (1992, 2004, 2014) | 48 |
| Iraq (holders) | 17th | Winners (1979, 1984, 1988, 2023) | 56 |
| Saudi Arabia | 25th | Winners (1994, 2002, 2003–04) | 59 |
| United Arab Emirates | 25th | Winners (2007, 2013) | 63 |
| Bahrain | 26th | Winners (2019) | 81 |
| Oman | 24th | Winners (2009, 2017–18) | 80 |
| Kuwait (hosts) | 26th | Winners (1970, 1972, 1974, 1976, 1982, 1986, 1990, 1996, 1998, 2010) | 134 |
| Yemen | 11th | Group stage (2003–04, 2004, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2014, 2017–18, 2019, 2023) | 157 |

### Draw

The draw was held on 9 November 2024 at 19:00 UTC+3 in Kuwait City .The eight teams were drawn into two groups of four, by selecting one team from each of the four ranked pots. Their positions were based on the FIFA ranking updated on 24 October.
| Pot 1 | Pot 2 | Pot 3 | Pot 4 |
| Kuwait (hosts) Iraq (title holders) | Qatar (46) Saudi Arabia (59) | United Arab Emirates (68) Bahrain (76) | Oman (80) Yemen (154) |

### Squads

Each team had to register a squad of 26 players, three of whom must be goalkeepers.

## Venues

Kuwait City :
| Ardhiya | Sulaibikhat |
| Jaber Al-Ahmad International Stadium | Sulaibikhat Stadium |
| Capacity: 60,000 | Capacity: 15,000 (new) |

## Officials

Referees
* Mustapha Ghorbal
* Ammar Mahfoodh
* Mohanad Qasim Sarray
* Ahmad Al-Ali
* Dahane Beida
* Qasim Al-Hatmi
* Abdulrahman Al-Jassim
* István Kovács
* Khalid Al-Turais
* Halil Umut Meler
* Omar Al-Ali
Assistant referees
* Abdulla Al-Rowaimi
* Mohamed Salman
* Watheq Al-Swaiedi
* Ahmad Abbas
* Abdulhadi Al-Anezi
* Saoud Al-Maqaleh
* Taleb Al-Marri
* Mohammed Al-Abakry
* Abdelraheem Al-Shammari
* Jasem Al-Ali
* Mohamed Al-Hammadi
Fourth officials
* Mokrane Gourari
* Abbès Zerhouni
* Brahim Hmade
* Youssouf Yahia
* Nasser Al-Busaidi
* Hamed Al-Ghafer
* Mircea Grigoriu
* Ferencz Tunyogi
* Kerem Ersoy
* İbrahim Çağlar Uyarcan
Video Assistant officials
* Fu Ming
* Mahmoud Ashour
* Ahmed Rsetam
* Jumpei Iida
* Abdullah Jamali
* Khamis Al-Marri
* Abdullah Al-Shehri
* Haythem Guirat
* Mohamed Khadim

## Group stage

* Tiebreakers
* Teams were ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria were applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings:
* Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
* Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
* Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
* If more than two teams were tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams were still tied, all head-to-head criteria above were reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
* Goal difference in all group matches;
* Goals scored in all group matches;
* Disciplinary points (yellow card = 1 point, red card as a result of two yellow cards = 3 points, direct red card = 3 points, yellow card followed by direct red card = 4 points);
* Drawing of lots.
All times are local (UTC+03:00).

### Group A

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Oman | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 3 | +1 | 5 | Knockout stage |
| 2 | Kuwait (H) | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 3 | +1 | 5 | Knockout stage |
| 3 | United Arab Emirates | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 4 | −1 | 2 | |
| 4 | Qatar | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 4 | −1 | 2 | |
* 1 2 Disciplinary points: Oman –7, Kuwait –9
* 1 2 Disciplinary points: United Arab Emirates –6, Qatar –11

### Group B

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Bahrain | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 4 | +2 | 6 | Knockout stage |
| 2 | Saudi Arabia | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 6 | +2 | 6 | Knockout stage |
| 3 | Iraq | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 5 | −3 | 3 | |
| 4 | Yemen | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 5 | −1 | 3 | |
* 1 2 Head-to-head points: Bahrain 3, Saudi Arabia 0
* 1 2 Head-to-head points: Iraq 3, Yemen 0

## Knockout stage

In the knockout stage, extra time and penalty shoot-out are used to decide the winner if necessary.

### Bracket

| Semi-finals | Semi-finals | Final | Final |
| 31 December 2024 – Sulaibikhat | 31 December 2024 – Sulaibikhat |
| Oman | 2 |
| Oman | 2 | 4 January 2025 – Kuwait City | 4 January 2025 – Kuwait City |
| Saudi Arabia | 1 | 4 January 2025 – Kuwait City | 4 January 2025 – Kuwait City |
| Saudi Arabia | 1 | Oman | 1 |
| 31 December 2024 – Kuwait City | 31 December 2024 – Kuwait City | | Oman | 1 |
| 31 December 2024 – Kuwait City | 31 December 2024 – Kuwait City | Bahrain | 2 |
| Bahrain | 1 | Bahrain | 2 |
| Kuwait | 0 | | |

### Final

| Oman | Bahrain |
| GK | 18 | Faiz Al-Rushaidi | 90+3' | 90+9' |
| CB | 2 | Mohammed Al-Musalami (c) |
| CB | 6 | Ahmed Al-Khamisi | | 58' |
| RB | 13 | Thani Al-Rushaidi |
| LB | 17 | Ali Al-Busaidi |
| CM | 4 | Arshad Al-Alawi | 46' |
| CF | 12 | Abdullah Fawaz | | 86' |
| CM | 23 | Harib Al-Saadi |
| CF | 7 | Issam Al-Sabhi | 90+10' |
| RM | 10 | Jameel Al-Yahmadi |
| LM | 21 | Abdulrahman Al-Mushaifri |
| Substitutions: ||
| GK | 1 | Ibrahim Al-Mukhaini |
| GK | 22 | Ibrahim Al-Rajhi | | 90+9' |
| DF | 3 | Mulham Al-Sinaidi | | 58' 90+8' |
| DF | 5 | Ghanim Al-Habashi |
| DF | 14 | Ahmed Al-Kaabi |
| DF | 16 | Khalid Al-Braiki |
| MF | 8 | Zahir Al-Aghbari | | 86' |
| MF | 9 | Ahed Al-Mashaiki |
| MF | 19 | Mataz Saleh |
| MF | 24 | Hussein Al-Shahri |
| FW | 25 | Faraj Al-Kiyumi |
| FW | 26 | Abdulsalam Al-Shukaili | | 90+8' |
| Manager: ||
| Rashid Jaber ||
| GK | 22 | Ebrahim Lutfalla |
| CB | 2 | Amine Benaddi | 43' |
| CB | 3 | Waleed Al Hayam |
| DM | 4 | Sayed Dhiya Saeed (c) |
| RB | 5 | Hamad Al-Shamsan |
| LB | 23 | Abdulla Al-Khulasi |
| RW | 7 | Ali Madan |
| AM | 8 | Mohamed Marhoon |
| DM | 19 | Kamil Al-Aswad |
| CF | 13 | Mohamed Al-Romaihi | 56' | 90+14' |
| LW | 20 | Mahdi Al-Humaidan | 83' |
| Substitutions: ||
| GK | 1 | Ammar Mohamed |
| GK | 21 | Sayed Mohammed Jaffer |
| DF | 16 | Sayed Baqer |
| DF | 18 | Mohamed Adel |
| DF | 24 | Vincent Emmanuel |
| MF | 10 | Abdulwahab Al-Malood |
| MF | 15 | Jasim Al-Shaikh |
| MF | 17 | Hazza Ali |
| MF | 25 | Sayed Ahmed Al-Wadaei |
| FW | 9 | Ebrahim Al-Khattal |
| FW | 11 | Ismail Abdullatif | | 90+14' |
| FW | 26 | Husain Abdulkarim |
| Manager: ||
| Dragan Talajić ||
| Assistant referees: Taleb Al-Marri (Qatar) Saoud Al-Maqaleh (Qatar) Fourth official: Mohanad Qasim Sarray (Iraq) Reserve assistant referee: Ahmed Al-Baghdadi (Iraq) Video assistant referee: Khamis Al-Marri (Qatar) Assistant video assistant referees: Fu Ming (China) Ahmed Gatea (Iraq) | Match rules 90 minutes 30 minutes of extra time if necessary Penalty shoot-out if scores still level Maximum of twelve named substitutes Maximum of five substitutions, with a sixth allowed in extra time Maximum of three substitution opportunities, with a fourth allowed in extra time |

## Winner

* 26th Arabian Gulf Cup Winner
* Bahrain Second title

## Goalscorers

There were 41 goals scored in 15 matches, for an average of 2.73 goals per match.
3 goals
* Mohamed Marhoon
* Issam Al-Sabhi
* Abdullah Al-Hamdan
2 goals
* Ali Madan
* Mohammad Daham
* Abdulrahman Al-Mushaifri
* Musab Al-Juwayr
* Mohamed Kanno
* Yahya Al-Ghassani
* Harwan Al-Zubaidi
1 goal
* Mahdi Abduljabbar
* Mahdi Al-Humaidan
* Mohamed Al-Romaihi
* Mohanad Ali
* Aymen Hussein
* Moath Al-Enezi
* Yousef Nasser
* Arshad Al-Alawi
* Ali Al-Busaidi
* Akram Afif
* Almoez Ali
* Mohammed Muntari
* Salem Al-Dawsari
* Saleh Al-Shehri
* Caio Canedo
* Abdul Majeed Sabarah
1 own goal
* Ebrahim Al-Khattal (against Yemen)
* Mohammed Al-Musalami (against Bahrain)

## Prize money and awards
### Prize money

| Position | Amount (USD) |
| Champions | 1,000,000 |
| Runner-up | 750,000 |
| Total | 1,750,000 |

### Player awards

The following awards were given:
| Award | Player |
| Top Scorer | Mohamed Marhoon |
| Most Valuable Player | Mohamed Marhoon |
| Best Goalkeeper | Ebrahim Lutfalla |

## Broadcasters

Middle East
| Territory | Broadcaster |
| Bahrain | Bahrain Sport |
| Iraq | Al-Iraqiya Sports Alrabiaa Sports |
| Kuwait | KTV Sports |
| Oman | Oman Sports |
| Qatar | Alkass |
| Saudi Arabia | SSC KSA Sport |
| United Arab Emirates | AD Sports Dubai Sports |
| Yemen | SSC Alkass (via free YouTube streaming) |
Others
| Territory | Broadcaster |
| United States of America | ESPN+ |
| Netherlands | ESPN |
| Portugal | Sport TV |