The colors of the clubs faded on Saudi National Day, and were united in the color of the homeland during Saudi football celebrations on National Day, as a number of Saudi league stars, especially foreign players, left their stadium uniforms aside and appeared in dresses, bishts, and brocaded headbands, while others carried swords and joined their Saudi colleagues in the parade steps, in a scene that combined football with the national heritage.
In turn, the club headquarters were transformed into festive arenas, amid a variety of events, from the parade, traditional costumes, and Saudi coffee, to public meetings and programs, while other clubs chose to commemorate the occasion through messages that linked sports to the process of transformation and development that the Kingdom is experiencing.
The most eye-catching image belonged to the foreign players. The stars that the public was accustomed to seeing in their club shirts and in the atmosphere of competition, appeared in a completely different way, wearing Saudi uniforms, wearing a bisht, and holding swords, before some of them tried to keep up with the rhythm and movements of the dance alongside their Saudi colleagues.
These scenes carried a dimension beyond the memorial photo. In a league that brings together players from dozens of nationalities, the occasion has turned into an opportunity through which people from different cultures learn about the details of the Saudi heritage and participate in it instead of just watching it.
The occasion was not limited to the Saudi League clubs, as the celebrations and messages extended to the various levels of football in the country.
Al-Faisaly called on the people of Hurmah to attend National Day activities in “historic Hurmah,” while cooperation brought to mind the process of unifying the Kingdom and the progress and prosperity it is witnessing, stressing in his message the importance of continuing work and serving the nation.
In Al-Sharqiya, I attended the occasion in the Al-Ittifaq and Al-Khaleej messages; Al-Ettifaq Chairman Samer bin Hassan Al-Mashal extended congratulations on this occasion, while Al-Khaleej, in the messages of its Chairman of the Board of Directors, Ahmed bin Ali Al-Khuraida, and its CEO, Ali bin Hassan Al-Hassan, focused on the transformations taking place in the sports sector, and what Saudi Vision 2030 has provided in terms of developing the sports system and enhancing the role of clubs in serving sports and society and investing in talents and competencies.
Al-Shabab, Al-Fayhaa and Abha clubs went in the same direction, evoking in their messages the meanings of unity, construction and pride in the history of the Kingdom, while Al-Fayhaa linked the support received by the sports sector to strengthening the presence of Saudi sports on the international scene, and Abha focused on the development process witnessed by the Kingdom.
The picture extended to the sports and investment sector as well, as the message of the Chairman of the Board of Directors of “Tamweel Al-Oula” Mansour bin Ibrahim Al-Afaleq contained a talk about the position that the Kingdom has reached in hosting major sporting events and tournaments, and the accompanying empowerment of national competencies and the strengthening of the Saudi presence in international forums.
Between the official statements and public events, the most different picture remained coming from within the clubs themselves... a foreign player learning how to wear an aqal, another putting the bisht on his shoulders, a third raising a sword, and a group trying to adjust its steps to the rhythm of the Saudi ritual.
In a season in which clubs compete for points and victories, National Day stopped the ball race for a while and unified the scene with its colors and details.
The bisht instead of the match shirt, the sword instead of the ball, and the parade instead of the goal celebration... On National Day, Saudi football spoke one language, even if the colors of its clubs and the nationalities of its stars differed.
In a league that brings together players from dozens of nationalities, it is an opportunity to learn about the details of the Saudi heritage
The 27th Gulf Cup tournament, held in Jeddah, continues on Thursday with two matches, as Qatar engages in a strong confrontation with Bahrain, the defending champion in Group Two, while the UAE national team launches its campaign against Yemen with the slogan of achieving a strong start that confirms its declared ambitions to compete for the title.
Bahrain's Croatian coach Dragan Talajic ignited the atmosphere with statements in which he confirmed Bahrain's intentions to maintain the title by saying: "The Bahraini national team will be the last to return from Jeddah because we will preserve the title."
He added: “We will face a team that will participate in the World Cup, but I have full confidence in all the players.”
Talajic relies on a group of the most prominent players who achieved the title of the previous version, such as goalkeeper Ibrahim Lotfallah, Walid Al-Hayam, Mahdi Hamidan, Kamil Al-Aswad, and Ali Madan.
The pressure appears to be greater on the Qatari team, which is required to return to the Gulf front after an absence from the coronation since 2014, after its unsatisfactory appearance in the last World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada.
His Spanish coach, Lopetegui, will undertake his first mission in the Gulf, as he aspires to erase the image in which he appeared in the World Cup when he was eliminated from the group stage.
Lopetegui said: “The World Cup is a thing of the past, and we are now thinking about the future.” We are not here to prepare for the Asian Cup, but rather we are putting most of our focus on the Gulf Cup, and our goal is to compete, but we are dealing with the tournament step by step, and we are currently focusing on the kickoff against a strong and difficult team that we know well.”
Al-Annabi is counting on stability through the technical staff maintaining the combination of the old guard that played in the World Cup and contributed to achieving the 2019 Asian Cup titles in the UAE and the 2023 titles in Doha.
The Qatari national team places great confidence in its first star, Akram Afif, the best player in Asia twice before, and its historic top scorer, Almoez Ali, along with experienced players such as Khoukhi Boualem, Pedro Miguel, and captain Hassan Al-Haydos.
During the previous editions of the tournament, the Qatari and Bahraini teams met in 19 matches, each of them winning five matches, while nine matches ended in a draw, and the Qatari team scored 16 goals compared to 12 for Bahrain.
In the second match, the UAE enters the current version, raising its ambitions and aiming to qualify for at least the final.
In the last three editions, “Al-Abyad” suffered unprecedented negative results, after the 2007 and 2013 champions were eliminated from the group stage, and did not know the taste of victory in the last eight matches since defeating Yemen by three clean goals on November 26, 2019 in “Gulf 24”.
After gaining 3 points and then suffering two losses in the Doha edition, he recorded the worst participation in Iraq in 2023 in its history, with a point from a draw and two losses, then two points in the last edition in Doha after a loss and two draws.
Croatian coach Zlatko Dalic said, outlining the goals of the team he is leading in his first mission since his appointment in August as a replacement for Romanian Cosmin Olariu: “The competition in the tournament will be great, and a great challenge for us and me personally. Our group includes Yemen, Qatar and Bahrain, and our first goal is to qualify from the group stage, and then we will proceed step by step, and I am sure that we can do what we plan.”
He continued: “I spoke with the players and explained to them what our first goal is, and we will fight to be champions, and we must keep in mind that we can achieve everything, because we have a good team.”
The most successful coach in the history of the Croatian national team, after leading it to runner-up at the 2018 World Cup and a bronze medal in 2022, confirmed: “I, too, like the UAE fans, are hungry for tournaments, and I want to continue my successful work and fight for the title.”
The bet will be on Dalic (59 years old) and his Gulf experience, after he previously led Al-Faisaly and Al-Hilal in Saudi Arabia and Al-Ain in the Emirates, to lead a proven group of players that includes 16 naturalized players, most of whom played in the qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup, during which “Al-Abyad” failed to repeat the achievement of ascending to the world football event for the second time after 1990 in Italy, with its loss in the Asian playoff to Iraq.
