New regulations set to improve 11th Edition of FIFA Arab Cup Qatar 2025

Doha, Qatar: The eleventh edition of the FIFA Arab Cup Qatar 2025, which will be hosted in Doha from Dec. 1 to 18, is witnessing impactful changes in...

Doha, Qatar: The eleventh edition of the FIFA Arab Cup Qatar 2025, which will be hosted in Doha from Dec. 1 to 18, is witnessing impactful changes in the regulations and instructions that will enhance the tournament’s status at the regional and international levels.

This is the second consecutive edition held under the umbrella of the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA), after the 2021 Doha edition, which marked a historic transformation when FIFA recognized the tournament for the first time since its launch in 1963, giving it an international dimension and major attention.

The success of the previous tournament contributed to FIFA continuing to provide international backing for three upcoming editions in 2025, 2029, and 2033, on the condition that they are held in Doha, to ensure the same remarkable success seen in the tenth edition.

The eleventh edition will witness many changes aligned with FIFA’s efforts to develop the tournament at the level of regulations, systems, and match value, in order to grant it more momentum.

The first fundamental change in the new edition is what FIFA issued in April 2024 at the same time as the decision to grant the State of Qatar the right to host the next three editions of the tournament under FIFA’s umbrella, when the competitions of the Arab Cup were approved as international friendly matches despite being played outside the designated windows listed on the official calendar, and that the points of these matches would be calculated within the global ranking system for national teams issued monthly by FIFA, a historic transformation that grants the tournament an official dimension it did not previously have.