From December 21, 2024 until January 3, 2025, Kuwait will host the twenty-sixth edition of the Gulf Cup Football Championship, or “Gulf 26,” with the participation of eight Arab teams, divided into two groups, as is the prevailing system in the tournament in The last period.

The tournament takes place in a two-group system, dividing the eight teams into two groups, each containing four teams, competing with each other to advance the first two teams to the semi-finals, before playing the final match to determine the champion of the competition.
The idea of ​​organizing the tournament came for the first time. The first was on the sidelines of the 1968 Olympic Games, after Prince Khalid bin Faisal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Emir of Mecca, proposed the idea, and the Bahraini delegation at the Olympics presented it to Stanley Ross, President of FIFA. At that time, after returning from the Olympics, the Bahraini Federation held a meeting to discuss the idea, which resulted in the holding of the first Gulf tournament in Bahrain in 1970 with the participation of four teams: Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar.

* History of the tournament
Kuwait dominated the tournament for four different tournaments until Iraq broke the Kuwaiti hegemony by winning the 1979 tournament. The tournament remained exclusive to the two teams for ten consecutive tournaments, until the Qatari team won the 1992 tournament, then Saudi Arabia in 1994, to win it all. The participating teams are excluding Yemen, which are seven teams.