Doha, December 15 (QNA) - The Gulf Cup is closely linked with Kuwaiti team as it has a great legacy in terms of winning the tournament since its inception, and it still holds a record despite long absence from winning the titles for nearly 15 years.

Kuwait hopes to claim the title again when it hosts the 26th edition of the tournament from December 21 to January 3.

The Kuwaiti team has the best chance in the tournament as it has the biggest share of titles by obtaining ten titles in its history, followed by Iraqi team with six titles, Qatari and Saudi teams with three titles, UAE and Omani teams with two titles, and Bahraini team with one title.

Kuwait won the title in the years: 1970, 1972, 1974, 1976, 1982, 1986, 1990, 1996, 1998, and 2010. It was the runner-up in only one edition, which was in 1979. It reached third place in only two editions in 2009 and 2013.

The Kuwaiti team has an amazing record in the history of the tournament, having retained the title for four consecutive editions during the first four editions after the launch of Gulf Cup. Kuwait dominance continued from 1970 until the fourth edition in Doha in 1976. The Iraqi team emerged as a new champion in the fifth edition hosted by Iraq in 1979.

The Kuwaiti team has made a great technical difference compared to its other competitors since the start of the tournament. During the golden era for Kuwaiti football from the early seventies until the mid-eighties of the last century, remarkable achievements were made not only on the Gulf level but also on the continental and global levels, as it won the runner-up position in the Asian Cup in 1976 before being crowned with the first Arab and Gulf continental title in 1980. This peaked with its qualification for the World Cup finals in Spain in 1982 to be the first Arab and Asian team to reach the World Cup, opening the door for Arab and Gulf teams to follow suit.

That golden era was characterized by the presence of a generation that Kuwaiti football fans still admire, such as Jasem Yaqoub, Abdulaziz Al Anberi, Faisal Al Dakhil, Fathi Kamil, Saad Al Houti, and other stars.

After the Iraqi team entered the Gulf competition with a great generation of players, the Kuwaiti team remained present in the scene, with both Kuwaiti and Iraqi teams dominating from 1979 until 1990, of which the Kuwaiti team won three to claim the seventh title in its history in the 10th edition hosted by Kuwait.

The Qatari team was the new champion that ended the period of Kuwaiti-Iraqi dominance, when it won the first title of the 11th edition that took place in Doha in 1992. The Kuwaiti team lost the title in two consecutive tournaments for the first time before winning the title of the 13th Gulf Cup in 1996 in Oman at the beginning of a new era of distinguished players as well, such as Bashar Abdullah and Jasem Al Huwaidi, who helped the Kuwaiti team win the next title of Gulf Cup in 1998. 

The Kuwaiti team remained absent from winning the Gulf Cup for a period of 12 years, namely from the 15th to the 20th editions, after a decline in its level, before appearing as a champion again in the 20th Gulf Cup, which was held in Yemen in 2010, with the help of star Bader Al Mutawa to achieve the 10th title.

The Kuwaiti team did not win the title during the last five editions, during which its best achievement was third place in the 21st Gulf Cup in Bahrain in 2013.

The period in which the Kuwaiti team was absent marked with a decline in its technical level, a significant decline on the Gulf and continental fronts, to the point that the team was absent from the last two editions of the Asian Cup in the UAE in 2019 and in Doha in 2023.

Recently, the Kuwaiti team regained a lot of strength as it is currently in the third and decisive round of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers in the United States, Mexico and Canada, in addition to booking a place in the next Asian Cup finals, which will be held in Saudi Arabia in 2027, in a prelude that confirms that the Kuwaiti team has begun to prepare for its natural position in the Gulf and continental.
Despite the two periods of absence from winning the Gulf titles, totaling 25 years, the Kuwaiti team still holds records by winning the cup in many years, considering that it is the most successful team with ten titles, while the historical top scorer in the tournament is still the Kuwaiti player Jasem Yaqoub with 18 goals scored in three tournaments from the second in 1972 until the fourth in 1976, and thus the record was attained nearly 49 years ago.

The Kuwaiti team is the most participating team in the tournament, along with the Qatari team as the two teams have been taking part continuously in the tournament since its inception, and played in all their planned matches in the 25 versions that were held previously.

In addition to its historical record of champions with ten titles and being the only team that won the title four times in a row, in a precedent that has not been repeated throughout the history of the tournament, the Kuwaiti team is the only team that retained the Gulf Cup forever twice.

The first time was after the third edition that took place in Kuwait in 1974, considering that the instructions agreed upon during the founding meeting of the tournament were that the team that won the title three times in a row would keep the cup forever. So, it kept the first cup after winning the first three editions, as Qatar presented a new version of the cup in the fourth tournament that was held in Doha in 1976.

The second time was by keeping the same new cup that Qatar presented for the fourth edition, following the sixth coronation of the Kuwaiti team in the eighth edition that was held in Bahrain in 1986.

The Kuwaiti team played the most matches in the tournament, with 115 matches, surpassing the teams of Qatar and UAE, which played 114 matches. It is also the team that has scored the most goals, having reached 200 goals in the tournament, a number that will be difficult to break in the upcoming rounds because the difference from its closest Saudi team is 34 goals.

Kuwait had scored the 100th goal in the Gulf Cup Championships on March 3, 1988, in the 9th Gulf Cup held in Saudi Arabia. The goal was scored by striker Salah Al Hasawi against Qatar in the match that ended in a 1-1 draw.

It scored the 200th goal on January 13, 2023 in the Gulf Cup 25 which took place in the Iraqi city of Basra, and the goal was scored by player Shabib Al Khalidi.

Throughout the history of the Gulf Cup, the Kuwaiti team has presented names and stars that have shone in the Gulf Cup since the first edition, which witnessed the brilliance of Jawad Khalaf and Mohammed Al Masoud, then Jasem Yaqoub, Faisal Al Dakhil and Abdulaziz Al Anberi during the subsequent editions before a distinguished generation emerged such as Mouayad Al Haddad, Mohammed Ibrahim, Salah Al Hasawi, Naeem Saad and others. Those were followed by a distinguished generation including stars such as Jasem Al Huwaidi, Bader Haji and Bashar Abdullah who helped in winning the Gulf titles, leading to the last generation that won the title in the 20th Gulf Cup led by Bader Al Mutawa and waiting for new stars to write their names by winning a new title that will become the eleventh in the history of Kuwait. (QNA)