Golf cup
| Golf cup | |
 |
|
| Full name | Arabian Gulf Cup |
| Association | UAFA |
| First edition | 1970 |
| Teams | 8th |
| Game mode |
Round-robin tournament 2 groups of 4 teams knockout system from semi-finals |
| Title holder |
 Bahrain (1st title)
|
| Record winner |
 Kuwait (10 wins)
|
| Website | agcff.com |
The golf cup , Arabic كأس الخليج العربي Ka's al-Chalīdsch al-ʿarabī , DMG kaʾs al-ḫalīǧ al-ʿarabī , English Arabian Gulf Cup , is a soccer competition between the national soccerteams ofthe six Arab member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf or Gulf Cooperation Council - GCC) , Yemen (GCC candidate country) and Iraq. This tournament takes place every two to three years in one of the participating countries, so far 23 editions have been held in eight countries.
The current title holder is the Oman team .
history
The idea for this tournament came during the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico . The initiator was Khalid al-Faisal, son of the Saudi King Faisal ibn Abd al-Aziz during a meeting of the delegations from Saudi Arabia , Kuwait , Bahrain and Qatar . During the tournament, the Bahraini delegation informed FIFA President Stanley Rous of this plan. On June 19, 1969 , the Bahraini Football Federation invited the associations of these countries to participate in the 1970 Golf Cup. The first tournament was finally held between March 27 and April 3, 1970 and ended with the Kuwaiti national team winning the cup . It was then decided to initially hold the tournament every two years.
Kuwait, at that time the only participant with an organized football league, clearly dominated the first editions and won these tournaments without much effort. In 1974 the team managed to win without a single goal in five games, this could only be repeated by another team (Oman 2009). The strongest opponents of the Kuwaitis were Iraq , who had participated since 1976. When they first played, Iraq led 2-0 in the match against Kuwait and brought the defending champions to the verge of their first defeat. But then the Kuwaitis get two goals, the decisive game against Iraq was finally won 4-2.
In 1979, Kuwait's dominance ended when Iraq won all of its six games in front of its own audience and became champions for the first time. On March 29, 1979 Kuwait lost the game against Iraq with 1: 3 and suffered its first defeat in nine years. In the 1980s, the Iraqis and Kuwaitis alternated as winners: in 1982 Kuwait was again the winner after the Iraqis withdrew, in 1984 Iraq won the tournament in the decider against Qatar, in 1986 the title would again go to Kuwait, while Iraq to 1988 Third time became champion. After both Iraq and Saudi Arabia refused to participate in the 1990 Golf Cup, the Iraqi team was excluded from participation due to the Kuwait invasion and the second Gulf War . In 1992, Qatar became the third team to win the tournament. In 1994, Saudi Arabia became the fourth winner. Since then, Kuwait (1996, 1998, 2010), Saudi Arabia (2002, 2003), Qatar (2004), the United Arab Emirates (2007, 2013) and Oman (2009) have won the tournament. In three consecutive editions, the hosts always secured the title. The 2010 tournament was held in Yemen . The country hosted the tournament for the first time in its history.
From 2004 handball , volleyball and basketball tournaments were also held, but these only play a subordinate role.
Competition mode
In the first edition in 1970, the teams from Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and Saudi Arabia participated. The United Arab Emirates joined these teams in 1972, Oman in 1974 and finally Iraq in 1976. After Iraq was excluded, the field of participants was reduced from six teams, before a seventh team, Yemen, was allowed to take part in 2003. After the fall of Saddam Hussein, Iraqis were allowed to participate again from 2004.
In the tournaments 1970–1972 and 1976–2003, each team played against the other, and the team that reached the highest number of points was declared the winner. Until 1992, when there was a tie, neither the goal difference nor the direct comparison made the difference. Teams with the same number of points had to play a playoff match (this happened in 1976 in Kuwait-Iraq and 1984 Iraq-Qatar). 1974 was first a group stage, then a knockout game.
After the number of teams was increased to eight in 2004, the group stage was reintroduced. The eight teams will be drawn into two different groups, the two group best then reach the semi-finals. In 2004 there was another game for third place, this was not the case in the 2007 and 2009 editions.
In the history of the tournament, a total of four different cups were played. The first was made in Lebanon and used from 1970 to 1976, after which Kuwait was allowed to keep this cup forever. The other cups were made in France , Germany and Italy .
The tournaments at a glance
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Ranking list
| rank | country | title | Year (s) | 2nd place | 3rd place | 4th Place |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Kuwait
|
10 | 1970, 1972, 1974, 1976, 1982, 1986, 1990, 1996, 1998, 2010 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| 2 |
 Saudi Arabia
|
3 | 1994, 2002, 2004 | 7th | 7th | 1 |
| 3 |
 Qatar
|
3 | 1992, 2004, 2014 | 4th | 3 | 4th |
| 4th |
 Iraq
|
3 | 1979, 1984, 1988 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 5 |
 Ver. Arab. Emirates
|
2 | 2007, 2013 | 3 | 5 | 4th |
| 6th |
 Oman
|
2 | 2009, 2017 | 2 | 0 | 4th |
| 7th |
Bahrain
|
1 | 2019 | 4th | 3 | 5 |
statistics
Record goal scorers
| rank | player | Gates |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Jassim Yaqoub
|
18th |
| 2 |
;_Flag_of_Syria_(1963%E2%80%931972).svg){kind=small} Hussain Said
|
17th |
|
Majid Mohammed Abdullah
|
17th | |
| 4th |
Jassim al-Houwaidi
|
14th |
|
Faisal ad-Dachil
|
14th |
Other records
- Most games: Kuwait (111 games)
- Most goals: Kuwait (195 goals)
- Most goals conceded: Oman (177 goals conceded)
- Top scorer: Jassim Yaqoub (Kuwait, 18 goals)
- Most goals in a tournament: Hussain Said (Iraq, scored ten goals in 1979)
- Most goals in one game: Majid Mohammed Abdullah (Saudi Arabia, scored six times in 1979 in a 7-0 win over Qatar)
- Most goal-scoring games: Kuwait 8-0 Oman (1976), Iraq 7-1 Saudi Arabia (1976), Kuwait 6-2 Qatar (1998)
- The highest victories: Kuwait 8-0 Oman (1976), Kuwait 7-0 UAE (1972), Kuwait 7-0 UAE (1979), Saudi Arabia 7-0 Qatar (1979), Iraq 7-0 Oman (1979)
- Most goal-winning tournament: Qatar 1976 with 84 goals
- Longest winning streak: Oman remained without a single win in 37 games between March 16, 1974 and March 10, 1988.
Until the end of the 1970s, there was still a big difference between the strong footballing nations (Iraq, Kuwait) and the supposedly weaker opponents, so that there were always high victories. From the 1980s onwards, however, the other nations were able to catch up more and more, which is particularly affecting offensive football. Since 1979 no team has been able to win by more than six goals difference.