MENA Sports Wrap: MENA teams gear up for Arab Cup in Qatar

The final preparations for the FIFA Arab Cup in Doha are underway, with the last teams playing qualifier games this week for the finals in Qatar, securing their place for the competition's 11th edition this week.

Meanwhile, club teams tied up domestic and continental games before a break for the Arab Cup.

Qatar to welcome MENA's best 16 teams for Arab Cup

The 2025 FIFA Arab Cup is set to kick off on Monday, with the region’s brightest talents vying for glory in the tournament’s 11th edition.

Hosted in Qatar between 1-18 December, the 2025 FIFA Arab Cup will see Algeria aim to defend their title which they won four years ago.

This year’s competition also marks the second time it is being held under FIFA’s jurisdiction, after being previously organised under the Union of Arab Football Associations.

The tournament will be hosted in six venues across Qatar, including the Education City, 974 and Lusail stadiums. This also marks the third time the Gulf county is hosting the tournament, who also organised the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

The tournament will kick off on Monday in Al-Rayyan, when Tunisia and Syria will face each other.

Later on Monday, hosts Qatar will take on the Palestinian national team.

16 teams are competing altogether, within four groups.

Group A is comprised of Qatar, Tunisia, Syria, and Palestine, whereas Group B includes Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Comoros, and Oman.

Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, and Kuwait will compete against each other in Group C, while Algeria, Iraq, Bahrain, and Sudan will face each other in Group D.

Morocco is the highest-ranked team among those competing and have won the competition once in their history  - in 2012. Iraq has won the Arab FIFA World Cup more than any other nation in the competition’s history, having won it four times.

The group stage matches will take place in a round-robin format, while the top two teams from each group will go head-to-head in the quarterfinals starting on 11 December. The four winning teams will then proceed to the semifinals set to begin on 15 December.

The final will be held on 18 December in Lusail’s iconic 88,000-seater stadium, where the FIFA World Cup final was hosted. A third-place play-off will also be played.

Eyes will be kept peeled for some of the region’s biggest stars, among them Palestinian striker Oday Dabbagh, iconic Qatari winger and former Asian Footballer of the Year Akram Afif, Moroccan striker Abderrazak Hamdallah and Saudi captain Salem Al-Dawsari.

The road to Doha

Before this, the FIFA Arab Cup qualifiers took place this week to decide the final teams to play the finals and a glimpse at some of the teams to watch out for. 

The top nine-ranked teams were given automatic places for the tournament, with the other 14 Arab nations playing one-off qualifier matches for the last seven places.

Kuwait pulled off an impressive performance against Mauritania, who had reached the last-16 of AFCON in 2023, with a 2-0 win, while Palestine progressed following a nail-biting penalty shoot-out against Libya.

Oman also ended their game 0-0 against Somalia, but comfortably made it through to the tournament in Qatar after winning the penalty shootout 4-1, while Comoros had to go beyond 90 minutes to beat Yemen.

Bahrain scraped a 1-0 win against Djibouti, while Sudan beat Lebanon 2-1. Perhaps the most impressive display was the highest-ranked team in the qualifiers, Oman, who cruised past South Sudan 2-0 and will be fancying their chances in this tournament.

Asian Champions League Elite teams play last games before FIFA Arab Cup

MENA club teams, meanwhile, played their finals games of the Asian Champions League Elite before a month-long break for the Arab Cup.

Al-Hilal secured their place for the next round of the tournament, with a comfortable 4-0 win over Iraq's Al-Shorta on Tuesday night.

The Riyadh side made it five wins in a row thanks to a brace from Marcos Leonardo and a goal from Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, and a successful strike from Joao Cancelo in the dying minutes of the game.

The Iraqi side wasn't helped by a second yellow card for Al-Shorta's Ahmed Yahya, with the Baghdad side conceding three goals following the 61st-minute red.

Al-Shorta are second-from-bottom in the AFC Champions League Elite West, having picked up only one point out of a possible 15.

Al-Hilal remains top of the league on 15 points to secure their place in the knock-out round, while second-placed Al-Wahda of the UAE also made their way to the last 16 following their 3-1 win over Al-Sadd of Doha.

Al-Sadd made it 1-0 with a spot-kick from Claudinho just before half-time, but appeared to fall apart following a goal from Dusan Tadic in the 55th minute, and Al-Wahda took the lead following a second goal from the Serbian ten minutes later.

The Abu Dhabi side sealed the game - and their place in the last 16 - with a goal from Caio Canedo in the 87th minute. 

There will be no Asian Champions League Elite games for Arab teams until 22 December, while most domestic seasons will also take a break.