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 TeamAppearancePrevious bestperformanceFIFA RankingsNovember 2024 26th Winners (1992, 2004, 2014) 48 (holders) 17th Winners (1979, 1984, 1988, 2023) 56 25th Winners (1994, 2002, 2003–04) 59 25th Winners (2007, 2013) 63 26th Winners (2019) 81 24th Winners (2009, 2017–18) 80 (hosts) 26th Winners (1970, 1972, 1974, 1976, 1982, 1986, 1990, 1996, 1998, 2010) 134 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 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 pot positions were based on the FIFA rankings from 24 October 2024 (shown in parentheses). Host nation Kuwait and defending champions Iraq were automatically seeded at the top of Groups A and B, respectively.
Pot 1Pot 2Pot 3Pot 4 (135) (hosts) (56) (holders) (46) (59) (68) (76) (80) (154)
Squads
Each team had to register a squad of 26 players, three of whom had to be goalkeepers.
Venues
Kuwait City Ardhiya SulaibikhatJaber Al-Ahmad International StadiumSulaibikhat StadiumCapacity: 60,000Capacity: 15,000
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 Referees
Fu Ming Mahmoud Ashour Ahmed Rsetam Jumpei Iida Abdullah Jamali Khamis Al-Marri Abdullah Al-Shehri Haythem Guirat Mohamed Khadim
Group stage TiebreakersTeams 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
Group B
Knockout stage In the knockout stage, extra time and a penalty shoot-out were used to decide the winner if necessary.
Bracket
Semi-finals
Final
Winner
Goalscorers
Prize money and awards Prize money PositionAmount (USD)Champions1,000,000Runner-up750,000Total1,750,000
Player awards The following awards were given:
AwardPlayerTop Scorer Mohamed MarhoonMost Valuable Player Mohamed MarhoonBest Goalkeeper Ebrahim Lutfalla
Broadcasters Middle East TerritoryBroadcasterRef.Bahrain SportAl-Iraqiya SportsAlrabiaa SportsKTV SportsOman SportsAlkassSSCKSA SportAD SportsDubai SportsSSCAlkass(via free YouTube streaming) Others TerritoryBroadcasterRef.ESPN+ESPNSport TV
References