Ibrahim Hassan revealed the Egyptian national team’s camp program in preparation for facing Angola and South Sudan in the 2027 African Nations qualifiers.

Ibrahim Hassan, director of the Egyptian national team, revealed the “Pharaohs” camp program in preparation for the matches between Angola and South Sudan in the qualifiers for the 2027 African Cup of Nations.

Hassan explained that the team’s list for the two matches will be announced later, Wednesday, and that the camp will begin on Thursday, at the national teams center in “6th of October City.”

The Egyptian national team will begin its qualifying campaign by hosting Angola on September 25 at Cairo International Stadium.

After the match, the team's delegation will leave for Juba on September 27 on a private plane, in preparation for facing South Sudan on the 29th of the same month, in the second round of the qualifiers.

The delegation is scheduled to return to Cairo on September 30, and the team will continue its program by playing a friendly match against South Africa on October 4 at Cairo International Stadium.

In its fifth hosting of the competition, the Saudi national team is looking forward to being crowned champion of the Arabian Gulf Football Cup this year (Gulf 27), for the fourth time in its history, and the first in more than 22 years.

The 27th edition of the competition - the first edition of which was launched in 1970 - will be held from September 23 to October 6.

The draw for the group stage of the tournament - which was held on May 19 - placed the Saudi national team, which is preparing to record its 26th appearance in the tournament, in the first group, along with the teams of Iraq, the Sultanate of Oman and Kuwait.

The Saudi national team will begin its participation in the tournament by facing the Kuwaiti national team on September 23, before facing its Omani counterpart three days later in the second round, while the Iraq national team will meet on the 29 of the same month at the conclusion of its first round matches.

The Greek Georgios Donis, coach of the Saudi national football team, announced on Wednesday the Green team participating in the Arabian Gulf Cup (Gulf 27), hosted by Jeddah. The green list included Muhammad Al-Owais, Nawaf Al-Aqidi, Hamed Youssef, Abdul-Ilah Al-Omari, Jihad Zikry, Rayan Hamed, Hassan Kadish, Hassan Timbukti, Nawaf Bushel, Muhammad Mahzari, Mutaib Al-Harbi, Zakaria Hawsawi, Musab Al-Jawir, Muhammad Al-Qahtani, Muhammad Kanno, Ziad Al-Juhani, Abdul-Ilah Al-Khaibari, Nasser Al-Dosari, and Alaa Al. Hajji, Sultan Mandash, Muhammad Abu Al-Shamat, Hammam Al-Hammami, Saleh Abu Al-Shamat, Abdullah Al-Hamdan, Firas Al-Braikan and Abdullah Al Salem.

The list did not include the name of the Saudi national team star, Salem Al-Dosari, due to his lack of readiness, after the injury that kept him out of the stadiums during the last period. The player Ali Lagami is also absent from the list, as well as Saud Abdul Hamid due to his professionalism in the French League.

The Saudi national team hopes to bring a smile back to its fans, who are waiting for the Green Team to ascend to the throne of Gulf football, after having previously won the championship for the first time in the twelfth edition in 1994 in the United Arab Emirates.

The Saudis waited 8 years until they won their second Gulf Cup title, when they hosted the tournament in their stadiums in 2002 in the fifteenth edition, while the last time the team held the prestigious cup was in the next edition in 2003 in Kuwait, which concluded its competitions in early 2004.

The Saudi national team is competing in the tournament under the leadership of its Greek coach, Georgios Donis, who took over the leadership of the team last April, succeeding Hervé Renard, but the team did not appear satisfactory to its fans during its participation in the last World Cup in the United States, Mexico, and Canada this summer.

The Saudi team exited the World Cup early in the group stage, after finishing bottom of the tenth group with two points. Where they tied 1-1 with Uruguay, and without goals with the Cape Verde national team (Cape Verde), which participated in the tournament for the first time, and suffered a harsh 0-4 loss against the Spanish national team, which worked its way to winning the title.

Donis seeks to show the Saudi team, which exited the last edition of the Gulf Cup in Kuwait in the semi-finals, with a different face than it showed in the World Cup, in the next edition of the Gulf Cup, especially since the tournament is being held in its stadium and in front of its fans in the city of Jeddah.

The Saudi national team is ranked 58th in the world, and fifth in Asia, in the latest classification issued by the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) for the teams last July, noting that it currently has the best ranking among the teams participating in the “Gulf 27”.

During its previous 25 participations in the Gulf Cup, the Saudi national team achieved runner-up 7 times, and achieved third place similarly, and fourth place once, in addition to having 3 titles in the competition, noting that it reached the semi-finals in the 2009 edition and the previous edition, without holding a match for the third-place team in them.

The Saudi national team played 116 matches in the Gulf Cup, with a difference of 3 matches behind the Kuwait national team, the team that played the most matches in the tournament. During which it achieved 59 victories, topping the list of teams with the most victories in the competition, while it tied in 25 matches, and suffered 32 losses, and its players scored 174 goals, while conceding 114 goals.

Retired star Majed Abdullah tops the list of the Saudi national team's historical scorers in the Gulf Cup with 17 goals, noting that he shares second place in the list of the tournament's historical scorers in general with Iraqi Hussein Saeed, with a goal difference behind Kuwaiti Jassem Yaqoub (the leader).

The largest victory achieved by the Saudi national team in the tournament came during the fifth edition held in Iraq in 1979, when it defeated the Qatari national team 7-0, in a match that witnessed Majed Abdullah scoring 5 goals alone.

After a series of setbacks that it has suffered in recent years, the UAE national team hopes to put an end to the misfortune that has been accompanying it, when it participates in the next edition of the Arabian Gulf Football Cup (Gulf 27).

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will host the twenty-seventh edition of the Gulf Cup in Jeddah, from September 23 to October 6.

The draw for the group stage of the tournament, which was held on May 19, placed the UAE team, which is preparing to record its 26th appearance in the competition, in the second group, along with the teams of Qatar, Bahrain and Yemen.

The UAE national team will open its career in the competition by meeting the Yemen national team on September 24, before facing the Bahrain national team three days later in the second round, while it will conclude its first round matches against the Qatar national team on the 30 of the same month.

The UAE national team has only two titles in the Gulf Cup, as it won its first title in the 18th edition that it hosted in its stadiums in 2007, when it defeated the Oman national team 1-0 in the final match.

The UAE team's second title in the tournament came in the 21st edition, which was held in Bahrain in 2013, after a 2-1 victory over the Iraqi team after resorting to extra time in the final.

In the tournament, the team is relying on the experience of its Croatian coach, Zlatko Dalic, who returned to the Emirates to take over the leadership of the white team in the middle of last month, succeeding Romanian Olario Cosmin.

Nine years after his departure from the Emirati Al Ain team to coach the Croatia national team, Dalic returned to Emirates football to lead the national team with a global personality, having previously led his country to second place in the 2018 World Cup in Russia after losing the World Cup final to France, which was followed by his third place in the next edition of the tournament in 2022 in Qatar.

Zlatko knows Emirati football well, as he previously coached Al Ain between 2014 and 2017, and led them to the President’s Cup title in 2014, the local league in the 2014-2015 season, the UAE Super Cup in 2015, and the AFC Champions League runner-up the following year.

The “Gulf 27” tournament will be Dalic’s first official test with the UAE national team, before participating in the Asian Nations Cup finals, which Saudi Arabia is also hosting, early next year.

Dalic wants to lead the UAE national team to recover from the setback it has suffered in recent years, which witnessed its failure to win the Asian Nations Cup, the Gulf Cup, or qualify for the World Cup finals.

The UAE national team is ranked 68th in the world and ninth in Asia in the latest classification issued by the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) for the teams last July, noting that it is ranked fourth in the classification among the teams participating in the Gulf 27, behind the teams of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Iraq.

During its previous participation in the Gulf Cup, the UAE national team won runner-up 4 times, third place 5 times, and fourth place 4 times, in addition to winning the title twice, noting that it reached the semi-finals in the 2010 edition, which did not witness a match to determine the third-place finisher.

The UAE national team has played 117 matches in the tournament so far, achieving 41 wins and 31 draws, while suffering 42 losses. Its players have scored 122 goals, while their goal has conceded 143 goals.

Ali Mabkhout tops the list of all-time top scorers for the UAE national team in the Gulf Cup with 13 goals, equal in number of goals with retired Qatari Mansour Muftah on the list of all-time top scorers for the competition in general.

Dalic, runner-up in the 2018 World Cup and third in the 2022 edition with Croatia, took over his duties as coach of the Emirates in August as a replacement for Romanian Cosmin Olariu, so his first squad did not witness any surprises and kept most of the previous names that competed in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers.

The list included 16 naturalized players, including four new ones: Youri Cesar and Bala Guilleram from Shabab Al-Ahly, Mamadou Coulibaly (Al Jazira) and Othman Kamara (Sharjah).

The goalkeeping lineup included: Khaled Issa (Al Ain), Hamad Al Muqbali (Shabab Al Ahly), and Fahd Al Dhanhani (Bani Yas). In defense: Zayed Al-Amiri (Al-Nasr), Khalifa Al-Hammadi, Robin Philipp and Marcos Meloni (Al-Jazeera), Aladdin Zuhair and Lucas Benemta (Al-Wahda), Sasha Ivkovic (Al-Wasl), Eric Menzies (Al-Ain), Khaled Al-Dhanhani (Sharjah). In the midfield: Louan Pereira and Hareb Abdullah (Sharjah), Abdullah Hamad (Al Wahda), Mamadou Coulibaly (Al Jazeera), Issam Fayez (Al Nasr), Fabio Lima and Nicolas Jimenez (Al Wasl). In the attack: Bruno Oliveira (Al-Jazeera), Ali Saleh (Al-Wasl), Youri Cesar, Bala Guilleram and Sultan Adel (Shabab Al-Ahly), Richard Akonor (Turkish Gostepe), Othman Kamara (Sharjah).