2007 Golf Cup

The 18th edition of the Golf Cup ( Arabic كاس ألخليج 18(English: Gulf Cup of Nations ) took place from January 17th to 30th, 2007 in Abu Dhabi , the capital of the United Arab Emirates . The national soccer teams of the seven Arab countries bordering the Persian Gulf and Yemen played for the competition that has been held since 1970 . Host United Arab Emirates won the tournament by beating Oman 1-0 .

The United Arab Emirates hosted this tournament for the third time after 1982 and 1994 . For the first time, there was no match for third place.

meaning

Each participating team received a starting bonus of 300,000 dirhams (converted: € 80,000).

All 16 games from Al Jazeera Sport , Dubai Sport , Abu Dhabi Sport and ART were broadcast live. The games were not shown in Europe. The broadcasters of the individual participating states each broadcast the games of their national team.

The total budget of the tournament was 60 million dirhem, of which 35 million dirhem was used for the opening ceremony.

The tickets were provided free of charge at the request of the Emirati Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayid Al Nahyan .

Venues

Overall, the tournament was played in four stadiums in Abu Dhabi, the largest stadium had a maximum capacity of 50,000 spectators. The venues were:

• Al-Zayed Sports Center (مدينة زايد الرياضية) was the largest stadium in the UAE. The 50,000-seat stadium was built in 1979 and hosted the 1982 and 1994 golf cups and the 1996 Asian Football Championship . Two preliminary round matches and the final were played in this stadium.

• Mohammed Bin Zayed Stadium (ستاد محمد بن زايد) was the second largest stadium in which games were played with 24,800 seats. All group B games as well as a semi-final game were played there.

• Al-Nuheyan Stadium (استاد آل نهيان) had 12,000 spectators and was the venue for Group A games and a semi-final match.

Attendees

The following eight teams took part in the final round:

Bahrain  Iraq  Qatar  Kuwait

Oman  Saudi Arabia  United Arab Emirates  Yemen

Six of the eight participants also took part in the Asian Cup in July of the same year, only Kuwait and Yemen could not qualify for the finals.

Group stage draw

The group draw took place on September 18, 2006 in Abu Dhabi. Guests were the top scorer Mubarak Mustafa (Qatar, 1992), Hussain Said (Iraq, 1979 and 1984), Ibrahim Zwayed (Bahrain, 1982), Fuad Amin (Saudi Arabia, 1994), Jassem Al-Houwaidi (Kuwait, 1998), Hani Al-Dhabet (Oman, 2002) and the Italian soccer world champion Fabio Cannavaro .

The host UAE and defending champion Qatar was set as the head of groups A and B, respectively, after which one of the six remaining teams was drawn from each group. The draw resulted in the following group constellations:

Group A	Group B
UAE	Qatar
Yemen	Bahrain
Kuwait	Iraq
Oman	Saudi Arabia

Game mode

At the golf cup, the eight teams played the winner in two phases. A total of 15 games took place.

Preliminary round

Four teams each competed in two groups in the championship system, ie each team played once against every other team in the group. In the group stage, a win counted three, a draw one point, and a defeat counted no points. In the table of the respective group, the points were added.

In the event of a tie between two teams, the table position and progression were decided in the following order: the goal difference and the higher number of goals scored from all group matches, the direct encounters between the teams concerned (higher number of points, goal difference, goals scored) or the lot.

Final round

In the semi-finals and in the final, the knockout system was used . If the games in the final round were tied after the regular playing time of 90 minutes, there was an extension of 15 minutes twice and possibly (if there is still no winner) a penalty shoot-out .

Game results

Group A

Pl.	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Oman	3	3	0	0	006: 300	+3	09
2.	UAE	3	2	0	1	006: 500	+1	06th
3.	Kuwait	3	0	1	2	004: 600	−2	01
4th	Yemen	3	0	1	2	003: 500	−2	01

January 17, 2007
UAE	-	Oman	1: 2 (0: 1)
Yemen	-	Kuwait	1: 1 (1: 0)
January 20, 2007
Oman	-	Kuwait	2: 1 (1: 0)
UAE	-	Yemen	2: 1 (1: 0)
January 23, 2007
Yemen	-	Oman	1: 2 (1: 1)
UAE	-	Kuwait	3: 2 (2: 2)

Group B

Pl.	country	Sp.	S.	U	N	Gates	Diff.	Points
1.	Saudi Arabia	3	2	1	0	004: 200	+2	07th
2.	Bahrain	3	1	1	1	004: 400	± 0	04th
3.	Iraq	3	1	1	1	002: 200	± 0	04th
4th	Qatar	3	0	1	2	002: 400	−2	01

January 18, 2007
Saudi Arabia	-	Bahrain	2: 1 (1: 1)
Qatar	-	Iraq	0: 1 (0: 1)
January 21, 2007
Iraq	-	Bahrain	1: 1 (1: 1)
Qatar	-	Saudi Arabia	1: 1 (1: 0)
January 24, 2007
Iraq	-	Saudi Arabia	0: 1 (0: 1)
Qatar	-	Bahrain	1: 2 (1: 1)

Semifinals

January 27, 2007 in Abu Dhabi
Oman	-	Bahrain	1: 0 (0: 0)
January 27, 2007 in Abu Dhabi
Saudi Arabia	-	UAE	0: 1 (0: 0)

final

The hosts won the final against Oman with a goal from Ismael Mattar in the 72nd minute of the game. For the UAE it was the first golf cup title. The game was led by the Slovak referee Ľuboš Micheľ .

January 30, 2007 in Abu Dhabi
Oman	-	UAE	0: 1 (0: 0)

Honors

Best player Ismael Mattar

Best goalkeeper Ali al-Habsi

Best goal scorers

• 5 goals:
  • Ismael Mattar
• 3 goals:
  • Yassir al-Qahtani
• 2 goals:
  • A'ala Hubail
  • Hawar Mulla Mohammed
  • Bader al-Mutawa
  • Imad Ali

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Official website of the Golf Cup: مليون درهم ميزانية خليجي 18 ( Memento of the original from January 8, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , January 2007 (Arabic) 

Web links

• Official website of the 2007 Golf Cup ( Memento of February 2, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (Arabic and English)
• Gulf Cup 2007 (in Abu Dhabi, UAE) (English)