Iraq football body launches ticket sales for Gulf Cup

Iraq’s football federation yesterday launched ticket sales for the 25th Gulf Cup, the first regional football competition to be hosted by the country for more than 40 years.The tournament brings together the hosts as well as Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Yemen, Bahrain, Oman and the United Arab Emirates. It will be held in Iraq’s southern city of Basra from January 6-19.Hosting the event is a major challenge for Iraq, which has experienced decades of conflict and upheaval, and whose security situation remains fragile. "Today, we are launching the sale of 25th Gulf Cup tickets,” Adnan Dirjal, head of Iraq’s football federation, told a press conference in Basra yesterday.The federation shared a link for the ticketing website on its Facebook page, with prices ranging from $10-30. Earlier this month, Iraqi authorities announced they were scrapping visa fees for fans entering Iraq for the competition. The move seeks to attract football fans from across the Gulf region, particularly Kuwait, whose border with Iraq lies less than 50 kilometres (30 miles) from Basra.One of the city’s stadiums has a capacity of 65,000, while the second can hold 30,000 fans and will be inaugurated tomorrow with a friendly between two local clubs from Iraq and Kuwait. Football’s governing body FIFA earlier this year lifted a ban on international competitions in Iraq that had been in place for years due to security concerns.In January, Baghdad’s packed Al Madina Stadium hosted a friendly between the Iraqi team and Uganda, the first international match in the capital since 2013, FIFA said at the time.Meanwhile, Iraqi singers Rahma Riad and Hussam al-Rassam will perform at opening ceremony on January 6.Iraq officials said they have put the final touches into Al Minaa Olympic Stadium. "The company arranging the opening ceremony of the Gulf Cup visited the stadium and an agreement has been made on all the arrangements,” Hussein Mustafa al-Jasim, director of the stadium project told Iraqi state media.Jasim added that all other preparations have been made, and companies from Spain and UK have taken part in the preparations. Basra had been selected to host three previous editions since 2010 of the Gulf Cup but the venue was changed each time due to concerns that Iraq was not safe enough.The only time Iraq hosted the Gulf Cup was in 1979 when they also emerged victorious.The country shares the honour of being the second most-decorated Gulf Cup champion of all time, a position it shares with Saudi Arabia and Qatar, having won the tournament three times, despite competing in only 14 editions of the cup. Kuwait leads the ranking, having won 10 times.Qatar, three-time winners of the Gulf Cup, are in Group B, also featuring Bahrain, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. Group A includes Iraq, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Oman. Qatar will go into the tournament with a new-look national squad.Many of the senior players who appeared at the 2022 FIFA World Cup, where Qatar lost all three group matches, have been rested while Portuguese Bruno Pinheiro has been named the coach of the 27-member squad. Those rested include Hassan al-Haydos, Akram Afif, Almoez Ali, Abdulaziz Hatem, Karim Boudiaf, Abdelkarim Hassan, Boualam Khoukhi, Bassam al-Rawi, Saad al-Sheeb and Pedro Miguel.Meanwhile, champions in 2007 and 2013, the UAE will begin preparations from tomorrow for the 25th edition of the tournament. The team has already undergone camp in Abu Dhabi last month, where they played friendlies against Argentina and Kazakhstan.UAE manager Rodolfo Arruabarrena said: "We respect for all participating teams, since all of them have the desire and ambition to compete for the title, regardless of their history in the tournament or the position they now occupy in the international rankings. There is no weak or strong team. Everyone will be in Iraq to compete to qualify from the group stage, then battle for the trophy. So we will deal with all matches with the same importance and care to ensure that we reach the maximum return from the tournament.”