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The tournament will be staged in Jeddah from September 23 to October 6.
Qatar have been drawn in Group B alongside the UAE, Bahrain and Yemen for the 27th Arabian Gulf Cup football tournament following the draw ceremony held in Jeddah on Tuesday. Group A features hosts Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman and Kuwait in the tournament, which will be staged in Jeddah from September 23 to October 6.
The draw ceremony was attended by HE Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa bin Ahmed al-Thani, Minister of Sports and Youth and President of the Arabian Gulf Cup Football Federation, along with representatives of the eight participating nations and several former Gulf football stars.
Gulf 27 will be the fifth edition organised under the umbrella of the Arabian Gulf Cup Football Federation. Saudi Arabia will host the tournament for the fifth time after previously staging the event in 1972, 1988, 2002 and 2014.
Qatar has won the Arabian Gulf Cup title three times, the last of which was in 2014.
Ahead of the draw, hosts Saudi Arabia were placed at the top of Group A, while the UAE headed Group B based on the latest FIFA rankings released on April 1. The remaining teams were divided into pots according to the rankings, with Qatar and Iraq in Pot 1, Saudi Arabia and the UAE in Pot 2, Bahrain and Oman in Pot 3, and Kuwait and Yemen in Pot 4.
Under the tournament format, teams in each group will compete in a single round-robin stage, with the top two sides from each group advancing to the semi-finals. The winners of Group A will face the runners-up of Group B, while the winners of Group B will take on the runners-up of Group A.
Bahrain are the defending champions after defeating Oman 2-1 in the final of the previous edition, which was held in Kuwait.
Kuwait remain the most successful nation in the history of the tournament with 10 titles, the latest coming in Yemen in 2010. Iraq are second with four titles, most recently winning Gulf on home soil in Basra in 2023.
Qatar and Saudi Arabia have each won the title three times, while the UAE, Oman and Bahrain have lifted the trophy twice apiece. Yemen are yet to win the competition in 10 appearances.
First held in Bahrain in 1970, the Arabian Gulf Cup has enjoyed a special status among football fans across the region for more than five decades, combining sporting rivalry with the shared cultural and social bonds of the Gulf nations.
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