The FIFA Arab Cup begins on 30th November in Qatar. Here are seven facts about the tournament.
How Many?
The 2021 Arab Cup will be the 10th edition of the Arab world’s national team football tournament. It was hosted by 7 different countries. First, hosted by Lebanon in 1963.
Rebranding
The 2021 tournament will be the first organized by FIFA, with all the previous being organized by UAFA, the Union of Arab Football Associations. The 2021 Arab Cup will also be a prelude to the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
The format
16 teams will participate in the tournament, of which seven came through the qualifying round. Of the 23 participating teams, who are all under the auspices of either the CAF or AFC, the top nine teams based on the FIFA rankings directly qualified to the group stage, while the remaining 14 teams played the qualifiers. In the group stage, there will be four groups of four teams in a round-robin format, with the top two teams from each group qualifying to the knockout stage, which will consist of quarter-finals, semi-finals, a third-place match, and the final.
Cancelations
The tournament was canceled twice. The 1982 edition was canceled during qualification because of the Lebanon War, and the 2009 edition during qualification due to lack of sponsors.
Serial winners
Iraq is the most successful team in the tournament’s history with 4 titles, which they’ve won in a row in 1964, 1966, 1985, and 1988.
Biggest scorers
Libya is the country with the most goals in the history of the tournament with 60. They scored 21 goals in a match against Oman who withdrew from the tournament after protesting a penalty free-kick decision of the referee at 80 minutes mark in that game. Ahmed Ben Soueid scored 9 goals in that game, which is the record during a single game of a tournament.
New technology
There will be some new technology used at the tournament. Semi-automated offside technology will be tested for the first time in this tournament.
