Arabian Gulf Cup


The Arabian Gulf Cup, often referred to simply as the Gulf Cup, is a biennial football competition governed by the Arab Gulf Cup Football Federation for its eight member nations. The history of the competition has also seen it held every three to four years due to political or organisational problems.

History

The idea for the tournament was established at the 1968 Summer Olympics, and the first Arabian Gulf Cup took place in 1970 which was won by Kuwait. Kuwait has been the most successful team in the tournament's history, winning 10 tournaments out of 24 in total, while Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Iraq all have three titles. The current champions are Bahrain, who defeated Saudi Arabia in 2019 to win their first title.
In 2017, the member countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, cut diplomatic ties with Qatar. In July 2019, the AGCFF announced that the 24th edition of the Arabian Gulf Cup will be held in Doha. In October 2019, the three countries also announced to boycott the tournament. Later in November 2019, the three countries announced to take part in the 24th edition of the Arabian Gulf Cup tournament to be hosted by Qatar.

Developments

A major point that helped Qatar improve the competition was the fact that Al Jazeera Sports, the leading sports channel in Western Asia, and North Africa is based in Doha. Al Jazeera Sports won broadcasting rights to the 2004, and exclusively in the 19th Arabian Gulf Cup in 2009 after a deal ending in million, and dramatically reformed the Arabian Gulf Cup by hosting numerous talk shows and documentaries, on top of filming in HD and perfecting camerawork of matches.
The tournament marked the presence of some of the most influential personalities of the football world, including FIFA President, Sepp Blatter, and UEFA president, Michel Platini. The FIFA Executive Committee has also put on their October 4, 2013 meeting agenda to hear the proposal for the Arabian Gulf Cup to be included in the international match calendar.

Results

Summary

Note:
Legend:
Note:
As of 2019 Cup
RankTeamPartPldWDLGFGADifPts
123109562528163102+61193
224113562333194112+82191
323111412839117135−18151
424112412541130129+1148
523107323441113135−22130
6155826211110456+4899
72210419275881176−9584
89300624977−686

Source:
Note: This table excludes eleven annulled games from 1972, 1982, and 1990.

All-time goal records

All-time goal records by Tournaments:
TournamentsGamesGoals ScoredGoals per Game
19706193.17
19726254.17
197410404.00
197622843.82
197921703.33
198215382.53
198422512.32
198621532.52
198821341.62
199010212.10
199215302.00
199415342.27
199615352.33
199815402.67
200215332.20
2003–0421462.19
200416593.69
200715342.27
200915312.07
201015302.00
201316362.25
201416332.06
2017–1815231.53
201915453.00

Does not include goals from annulled or abandoned games
Includes 1974 Preliminary Round games
Does not include penalty shoot-out goals

All-time top scorers

PlayerCountryGoals
1Jasem Yaqoub18
2Majed Abdullah17
2Hussein Saeed17
4Jasem Al Huwaidi14
4Faisal Al-Dakhil14
6Ali Mabkhout13
6Mansour Muftah13
8Bader Al-Mutawa12
8Yussef Al-Suwayed12
10Fahad Khamees10
10Mahmoud Soufi10
10Yasser Al-Qahtani10

Players in bold are still active

Golden boot history

YearPlayerGoals scored
1970 Mohammed Masawd3
1970 Jawad Khalif3
1972 Hamad Bu Hamood6
1974 Jasem Yaqoub6
1976 Jasem Yaqoub9
1979 Hussein Saeed10
1982 Ebrahim Zwaeed3
1982 Saleem Khalifa3
1982 Yussif Swaid3
1982 Majed Abdullah3
1984 Hussain Saeed7
1986 Fahad Khamees6
1988 Zuhair Bukheet4
1988 Ahmad Radhi4
1990 Mohammed Ebrahim Hajeyah5
1992 Mubarak Mustafa3
1994 Fuad Anwar4
1994 Mahmoud Soufi4
1996 Mohammed Salem Al-Enazi4
1998 Jasem Al Huwaidi9
2002 Hani Al-Dhabit5
2003–04 Talal Yousef5
2004 Amad Al Hosni4
2007 Ismail Matar5
2009 Hassan Rabia4
2010 Bader Al-Mutawa3
2010 Alaa Abdul-Zahra3
2013 Ahmed Khalil3
2013 Abdulhadi Khamis3
2014 Ali Mabkhout5
2017–18 Ali Husni2
2017–18 Ali Faez2
2017–18 Jamal Rashid2
2017–18 Almoez Ali2
2017–18 Said Al-Ruzaiqi2
2019 Ali Mabkhout5

CountryPlayersYears
89
67
45
44
44
33
22
00

Other records