The Middle East is considered football crazy. After the World Cup in Qatar, and the hope about crypto casino Australia, the Persian Gulf region is emerging as a powerhouse of international football with the Arab Gulf Cup in Iraq.
For Iraq, hosting the Arab Gulf Cup means a step back into a new normal. The era of major tournaments is not yet over in the Persian Gulf after the World Cup in Qatar ended three weeks ago with a spectacular final. In the shadow of European club football, which is just getting back into gear, the 25th Arab Gulf Cup opened last Friday in Iraq, featuring World Cup participants Saudi Arabia and Qatar, among others. Two days earlier, Cristiano Ronaldo was presented at the Saudi club Al-Nasr. As far as great football moments go, the region never rests.
With a devotional rendition of their national anthem, the many Iraqis among the 65,000 people at Basra International Stadium on Friday celebrated their team and their nation. Seated in the stands at the opening match of the 2023 Arab Gulf Cup between Iraq and Oman were heads of state and ministers, as is customary on such occasions, and FIFA chief Gianni Infantino was also in attendance. The atmosphere of the Gulf Cup is possibly even more intense than that of many World Cup matches. The Middle East remains a football region.
In any case, the Persian Gulf nations remain a turbulent football region even after the big tournament in Qatar, says James Dorsey, one of the leading experts on football in the Arab world. There are a number of football powerhouses in the Middle East that have yet to shine on the World Cup stage. But they are shining on a regional level. Iraq, like most other Middle Eastern nations, is football crazy. And the fact that such a tournament is being held here will excite people.
Iraq has been a country caught between war and terror. According to official figures, 90 percent of the tickets for the two stadiums at the only venue, Basra, have already been sold. People queued for hours outside some ticket offices. Basra, the center of Iraq’s oil industry, has spruced itself up. And as is almost always the case with such tournaments, this one is about more than wins and losses. Iraq is a country shaken by war and terror, whose national team was not allowed to play home games for years because of the difficult security situation. Between 1990 and 2004, the nation was completely excluded from many competitions following the invasion of Kuwait.
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In this respect, hosting the Arab Gulf Cup is a step back to a new normality. “Twenty years after the Iraq war, Iraq is back,” writes the English-language newspaper Arab News from Jeddah. The nation is making a name for itself again on the global stage, it says, and is beginning that return by hosting the Arab Gulf Cup.
