The 2021 FIFA Arab Cup (Arabic: كأس العرب 2021) is scheduled to be the 10th edition of the Arab world’s national team football tournament; it will be the first edition with the FIFA Arab Cup branding. It is scheduled to take place between 30 November and 18 December in Qatar, as a prelude to the 2022 FIFA World Cup which will also be held in Qatar.
⌚️ It’s less than one month until an Arab football extravaganza kicks off in the stadiums set to stage the #WorldCup 🏟️
🏆 Do you want to experience the atmosphere and see the action at the #FIFArabCup?
➡️ https://t.co/6rK4jKOGtj pic.twitter.com/GcXCrvGzMT
— FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) October 31, 2021
The tournament phase will involve 16 teams, of which seven came through the qualifying round; all 23 teams competing are under the auspices of either the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) or the Confederation of African Football (CAF). The 32 finals matches will be played in six venues, which will also be used for the 2022 FIFA World Cup
The stunning Al Bayt Stadium will host the opening match of the #FIFArabCup between hosts Qatar 🇶🇦 and Bahrain 🇧🇭 on 30 November.
Don't miss your chance of attending this special occasion! 🏆🏟️
🎟️ For tickets: https://t.co/vBCG3hf7ia
🎫 For Fan ID: https://t.co/nQq2zLwM81 pic.twitter.com/i0IEwKeTFZ
— SC News (@roadto2022news) November 1, 2021
| كأس العرب 2021 Kaʾs al-ʿārab 2021 |
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Tournament details | |
| Host country | Qatar |
| Dates | 30 November – 18 December |
| Teams | 16 (from 2 confederations) |
| Venue(s) | 6 (in 4 host cities) |
Planning to attend the #FIFArabCup🏆?
Your Fan ID will provide you the ultimate experience in Qatar! 🇶🇦🏟️
Watch the video to learn more and visit https://t.co/nQq2zLwM81 🎫 pic.twitter.com/D5D4S7tss8
— SC News (@roadto2022news) October 31, 2021
Bye to the group stage
(Ranked 1st to 9th)
Qatar (58) (hosts)
Tunisia (26)
Algeria (33)
Morocco (34)
Egypt (46)
Saudi Arabia (65)
Iraq (68)
United Arab Emirates (73)
Syria (79)
Competing in the qualifiers
(Ranked 10th to 23rd)
Oman (80)
Lebanon (93)
Jordan (95)
Bahrain (99)
Mauritania (101)
Palestine (104)
Libya (119)
Sudan (123)
Comoros (131)
Yemen (145)
Kuwait (148)
South Sudan (169)
Djibouti (183)
Somalia (197)
Draw
The group stage draw took place on 27 April 2021 at 21:00 AST at the Katara Opera House in Doha. It was conducted by Manolo Zubiria, FIFA’s director of competitions, and four former players: Wael Gomaa (Egypt), Nawaf Al-Temyat (Saudi Arabia), Haitham Mustafa (Sudan) and Younis Mahmoud (Iraq).
🥳 The greatest celebration of Arab football is coming to Qatar 🔜
⌛️ The last-minute ticket sales phase starts tomorrow, so join the cheers and fly your flag at the first #FIFArabCup 🏆
ℹ️🎟️👉 https://t.co/wrKRjr91XVpic.twitter.com/2g7HYSLMDF
— FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) October 24, 2021
The sixteen teams were drawn into four groups of four teams. The draw started with pot 1 and completed with pot 4, from where a team was drawn and assigned to the first available group in the position of their pot (i.e. position 1 for pot 1). The hosts Qatar were automatically seeded into pot 1 and assigned to position A1, while the remaining automatically qualified teams were seeded into their respective pots based on the FIFA World Rankings of April 2021 (shown in parentheses below). Syria, the lowest-ranked team that automatically qualified, were joined in pot 3 by the winners of qualification matches 1 to 3, while pot 4 contained the winners of qualification matches 4 to 7. Algeria, as the winners of the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations, were assigned to position D1
| Team | Rank |
|---|---|
| Qatar |
58 |
| Tunisia |
26 |
| Algeria |
33 |
| Morocco |
34 |
| Team | Rank |
|---|---|
| Egypt |
46 |
| Saudi Arabia |
65 |
| Iraq |
68 |
| United Arab Emirates |
73 |
| Team | Rank |
|---|---|
| Syria |
79 |
| Prelim winner 1 | N/A |
| Prelim winner 2 | |
| Prelim winner 3 |
|
Draw results and group fixtures
The draw resulted in the following groups (teams in italics are prelim winners whose identities were not known at the time of the draw):
| Pos | Team |
|---|---|
| A1 | Qatar |
| A2 | Iraq |
| A3 | Oman |
| A4 | Bahrain |
| Pos | Team |
|---|---|
| B1 | Tunisia |
| B2 | United Arab Emirates |
| B3 | Syria |
| B4 | Mauritania |
| Pos | Team |
|---|---|
| C1 | Morocco |
| C2 | Saudi Arabia |
| C3 | Jordan |
| C4 | Palestine |
| Pos | Team |
|---|---|
| D1 | Algeria |
| D2 | Egypt |
| D3 | Lebanon |
| D4 | Sudan |
Match officials
A total of 12 refereeing trios (a referee and two assistant referees) and 16 video assistant referees were appointed for the tournament.
| Confederation | Referee | Assistant referees | Video assistant referees |
|---|---|---|---|
| AFC | Alireza Faghani (Iran) | Mohammadreza Mansouri (Iran) Mohammadreza Abolfazli (Iran) |
Shaun Evans (Australia) Abdulla Al Marri (Qatar) Hiroyuki Kimura (Japan) |
| Ryuji Sato (Japan) | Hiroshi Yamauchi (Japan) Jun Mihara (Japan) |
||
| CAF | Bakary Gassama (Gambia) | Djibril Camarai (Senegal) Elvis Noupue (Cameroon) |
Rédouane Jiyed (Morocco) Ibrahim Nour El Din (Egypt) |
| Janny Sikazwe (Mozambique) | Zakhele Siwela (South Africa) Jerson Dos Santos (Angola) |
||
| CONCACAF | Said Martínez (Honduras) | Walter López (Honduras) Christian Ramirez (Honduras) |
Adonai Escobedo (Mexico) Fernando Guerrero (Mexico) Jair Marrufo (United States) |
| Fernando Hernández Gómez (Mexico) | Micheal Barwegen (Canada) Karen Diaz Medina (Mexico) |
||
| CONMEBOL | Andrés Matonte (Uruguay) | Martin Soppi (Uruguay) Carlos Barreiro (Uruguay) |
Eber Aquino (Paraguay) Leodán González (Uruguay) Rafael Traci (Brazil) Juan Soto (Venezuela) |
| Wilton Sampaio (Brazil) | Danilo Manis (Brazil) Bruno Pires (Brazil) |
||
| Facundo Tello (Argentina) | Ezequiel Brailovsky (Argentina) Gabriel Chade (Argentina) |
||
| OFC | Matthew Conger (New Zealand) | Tevita Makasini (Tonga) Bernard Mutukera (Solomon Islands) |
|
| UEFA | Szymon Marciniak (Poland) | Paweł Sokolnicki (Poland) Tomasz Listkiewicz (Poland) |
Tomasz Kwiatkowski (Poland) Guillermo Cuadra Fernández (Spain) Christian Dingert (Germany) Fabio Maresca (Italy) |
The striking Ras Abu Aboud Stadium is built from shipping containers!
This sustainable 40,000-capacity venue will be inaugurated during the #FIFArabCup!
🎟️ For tickets: https://t.co/vBCG3hf7ia
🎫 For Fan ID: https://t.co/nQq2zLwM81 pic.twitter.com/WMjTNcbdS6
— SC News (@roadto2022news) October 29, 2021
