Gulf Meeting 27 discusses hosting Gulf 28 and alternating hosting, Barcelona wins over Zamalek in handball, and Moataz Barshim misses the AFC Final

The Executive Office of the Arabian Gulf Cup Football Federation will hold its meeting, Monday afternoon, at the Raffles Hotel in Jeddah, on the sidelines of the “Gulf 27” tournament.

The issue of hosting the “Gulf 28” tournament is at the top of the meeting’s agenda. Iraq alone submitted an official request to host the tournament, which was confirmed by the Governor of Basra, Asaad Al-Eidani, in previous statements.

In the same context, sources revealed to Asharq Al-Awsat that there is an initial desire by both Bahrain and the Sultanate of Oman to consider submitting a hosting request in the coming hours, without taking any official step yet.

Informed sources reported that there is a study to re-apply the rotation system between countries to host the Gulf Championship, instead of the current application submission system.

The UAE hosted the last edition in 2007, while the Sultanate of Oman hosted the last edition in 2009, while the Kingdom of Bahrain hosted the last edition in 2013, while the Kingdom hosted the 2014 and 2026 editions, compared to two editions for Kuwait, 2017 and 2024, while Iraq hosted the 2023 edition in Basra.

This approach aims to ensure that the tournament passes through most of the Gulf countries, because of its significant impact in developing sports facilities, supporting sports practitioners in the region, and enhancing tourism in each country, while identifying an alternative country in the event that it is not possible to host.

Spanish team Barcelona, ​​the defending champion of the Club World Cup in Handball, continued its series of victories in this year’s edition of the tournament by defeating Egyptian Zamalek on Sunday.

The Catalan team finished the match in their favor with a score of 39-29.

Barcelona imposed complete control over the match from the beginning, as it ended the first half with an 8-goal advantage, 20-12.

With this result, Barcelona achieved its second victory in a row, raising its score to 4 points at the top of Group A, followed by Zamalek with two points in second place.

Earlier on Sunday, the Brazilian Pineros defeated the Moroccan Derb Sultan Forum with a score of 37-22, achieving its first victory and raising its score to two points, while the Moroccan team remained without a score.

Zamalek began its tournament by defeating Los Angeles, USA, 40-17, in the preliminary round, to advance to the main group stage.

In the first round of the group stage, Zamalek defeated the Moroccan Darb Sultan Forum team with a score of 42-17.

Later on Sunday evening, Hungary's Veszprem will play against Germany's Fuchs Berlin, and Egyptian Al-Ahly will play against Kuwait's Burgan in the second group competitions.

The injury prevented Qatari champion Moataz Barshim from competing in the final of the high jump competition, scheduled for Sunday, within the “Asian Games” in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan.

Attention was drawn to Barshim’s participation, in light of the expectations placed on him to continue his achievements in the “Asiad” and add a new medal to his distinguished record.

Barshim has 3 gold medals in the Asian Games, which he won in Guangzhou, China in 2010, and Incheon, South Korea in 2014, before he missed the Jakarta edition in 2018 due to injury, then returned to win gold in Hangzhou, China in 2022.

Barshim recorded the second-best number in the history of the competition (2.35 metres) during the previous Asian Games, and in the current edition he was looking forward to continuing his presence on the podium and enhancing his historical record in the Asian Games.