# 1st Gulf Cup for Veteran Players

The 1st Gulf Cup for Veteran Players was the first edition of the Gulf Cup for Veteran Players for the eight members of the Arab Gulf Cup Football Federation. The tournament was held in Kuwait from 22–26 February 2025 for retired players that have participated in previous Arabian Gulf Cup tournaments. The tournament was originally set to start on 20 February, but the start date was postponed by two days. Each match was 40 minutes in length.
The tournament was won by Iraq, who defeated Oman 4–3 on penalties in the final after a 0–0 draw. The success of the inaugural tournament led to calls to continue holding the competition alongside future Arabian Gulf Cups.

## Teams

| Team | Appearance |
| Team | Appearance | Qatar | 1st |
| Iraq | 1st |
| Saudi Arabia | 1st |
| United Arab Emirates | 1st |
| Bahrain | 1st |
| Oman | 1st |
| Kuwait (hosts) | 1st |
| Yemen | 1st |

### Squads

Each team had to register a squad of 20 players, all of whom must be retired or over the age of 40, including three goalkeepers. All players must have taken part in at least one previous Arabian Gulf Cup tournament.

## Venues

* Sulaibikhat Stadium
* Capacity: 15,000

## Officials
### Referees

All referees in charge of the tournament are retired referees who officiated at least one match in a previous Arabian Gulf Cup tournament.
* Saoud Ali Al Adba
* Nassir Rashid Hamdan
* Ali Shaban
* Ahmed Qaid Saif Anaam
* Mohammed Amr
* Najim Aboud
* Nawaf Shukralla
* Mohammed Jumaa

## 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.
Teams were divided into two groups according to the same draw as the 26th Arabian Gulf Cup. 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 | 2 | 1 | +1 | 5 | Knockout stage |
| 2 | Qatar | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | Knockout stage |
| 3 | Kuwait (H) | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | |
| 4 | United Arab Emirates | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | −1 | 2 | |

### Group B

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Iraq | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | +2 | 7 | Knockout stage |
| 2 | Bahrain | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | +1 | 5 | Knockout stage |
| 3 | Saudi Arabia | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 | |
| 4 | Yemen | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 | −3 | 0 | |

## Knockout stage

In the knockout stage, a penalty shoot-out is used to decide the winner if necessary.

### Bracket

| Semi-finals | Semi-finals | Final | Final |
| 25 February 2024 – Sulaibikhat | 25 February 2024 – Sulaibikhat |
| Oman | 2 |
| Oman | 2 | 26 February 2024 - Sulaibikhat | 26 February 2024 - Sulaibikhat |
| Bahrain | 1 | 26 February 2024 - Sulaibikhat | 26 February 2024 - Sulaibikhat |
| Bahrain | 1 | Oman | 0 (3) |
| 25 February 2024 – Sulaibikhat | 25 February 2024 – Sulaibikhat | | Oman | 0 (3) |
| 25 February 2024 – Sulaibikhat | 25 February 2024 – Sulaibikhat | Iraq (p) | 0 (4) |
| Iraq | 1 | Iraq (p) | 0 (4) |
| Qatar | 0 | | |

### Final
## Winner

* 1st Gulf Cup for Veteran Players Winner
* Iraq First title

## Goalscorers

There were 11 goals scored in 15 matches, for an average of 0.733 goals per match.
2 goals
* Ismail Al-Ajmi
1 goal
* Ahmed Hassan Taleb
* Talal Yousef
* Hammadi Ahmed
* Karrar Jassim
* Mustafa Karim
* Hassan Rabia
* Hashim Saleh
* Waleed Jassem
* Nasser Al-Shamrani

## Prize money and awards
### Prize money
#### Team

| Position | Amount (USD) |
| Champions | 200,000 |
| Runner-up | 150,000 |
| Total | 350,000 |

#### Individual

| Position | Amount (QAR) |
| Top Scorer | 50,000 |
| Best Goalkeeper | 50,000 |
| Most Valuable Player | 50,000 |
| Total | 150,000 |

### Player awards

The following awards were given:
| Award | Player |
| Top Scorer | Ismail Al-Ajmi |
| Most Valuable Player | Karrar Jassim |
| Best Goalkeeper | Noor Sabri |