2025 FIFA Arab Cup

The 2025 FIFA Arab Cup (Arabic: كأس العرب 2025) was the 11th edition of the Arab Cup, the Arab world's national team football tournament. It was the second edition under FIFA's jurisdiction, with previous editions having been organised by the Union of Arab Football Associations (UAFA). The tournament took place in Qatar from 1 to 18 December 2025. This was the third time that Qatar hosted the competition, following the 1998 and 2021 editions.

In the final, Morocco played Jordan on 18 December at the Lusail Stadium in Lusail. Morocco won the match 3–2 after extra time to claim their second Arab Cup.

Of the 23 participating teams, the host nation Qatar, the title holders Algeria, and the remaining seven highest-ranked teams based on the April 2025 FIFA Ranking automatically qualified for the group stage. The remaining 14 teams played seven single-leg qualification matches, with the seven winners advancing to the group stage. In the group stage, there were four groups of four teams in a round-robin format, with the top two teams from each group qualifying for the knockout stage, which consisted of quarter-finals, semi-finals, a play-off for third place, and the final.

The 14 teams in the qualifiers were paired based on their April 2025 FIFA Ranking and consist of the seven lowest-ranked teams from both the AFC and the CAF. The highest-ranked AFC team played the lowest-ranked CAF team, the second-highest-ranked AFC team played the second-lowest-ranked CAF team, and so forth, creating seven inter-confederation matchups. The winners of qualification matches 1, 2, and 3 occupied positions 2, 3, and 4 in Pot 3 for the final tournament draw, while the winners of the remaining four matches were placed in Pot 4 in order.

Note: Parentheses show FIFA World Ranking (at the time of the draw) and confederation.

The group stage draw took place on 25 May 2025 at 20:00 AST (UTC+3) in at the Raffles Hotel in Doha, Qatar. It was conducted by Jaime Yarza, FIFA's director of tournaments, and four current and former players: Hassan Al-Haydos (Qatar), Rabah Madjer (Algeria), Yasser Al-Qahtani (Saudi Arabia), and Wael Gomaa (Egypt).

The sixteen teams were drawn into four groups of four teams. The draw started with Pot 1 and ended 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, and the 2021 FIFA Arab Cup champions, Algeria, were automatically seeded into Pot 1 and assigned to position A1 and D1, respectively. The remaining automatically qualified teams were seeded into their respective Pots based on the FIFA World Ranking of April 2025 (shown below). The United Arab Emirates, 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.

The 16 national teams involved in the tournament were required to register a squad of 23 players, including three goalkeepers. Only players in these squads were eligible to take part in the tournament. The position listed for each player is per the official squad list published by FIFA on 21 November 2025. The age listed for each player is on 1 December 2025, the first day of the tournament.

On 14 October 2025, FIFA appointed 54 match officials from 23 member associations for the tournament. This included 14 referees, 28 assistant referees, and 12 video match officials.

On 24 May 2025, the organising committee announced the six venues that would host the tournament, all of which were used for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Similarly to the aforementioned competition, Al Bayt Stadium hosted the opening game, with Lusail Stadium set to host the final.

The 14 lowest-ranked teams in the April 2025 FIFA World Ranking met on 25 and 26 November in a single knockout match. The best-ranked AFC team met the lowest-ranked CAF team, the second-best AFC team played the second-lowest CAF team, and so on.

Of the 23 participating teams, the top nine teams based on the April 2025 FIFA World Ranking qualified directly to the group stage, while the remaining 14 teams played seven qualifying matches, of which seven qualified for the next stage. In the group stage, the teams were divided into four groups of four, with the two best teams from each group advancing to the quarter-finals.

The ranking of teams in the group stage was determined as follows:

1. Points obtained in all group matches (three for a win, one for a draw, none for a defeat);
2. Points obtained in matches between the teams concerned;
3. Goal difference in matches between the teams concerned;
4. Goals scored in matches between the teams concerned;
5. Goal difference in all group matches;
6. Goals scored in all group matches;
7. Fair play points in all group matches (only one deduction per player per match): Yellow card: −1 point;Indirect red card (second yellow): −3 points;Direct red card: −4 points;Yellow card and direct red card: −5 points;
8. Latest FIFA Men's World Ranking.

The knockout stage included all stages from the quarter-finals to the final match. The winner of each match advanced to the next stage and the loser was eliminated. The losing teams of the semi-finals played the match for third place. In the final match, the winner lifted the Arab Cup. In all final cases, if the match ended in a tie, then extra time was played. If the score was still level after extra time, it was decided by a penalty shoot-out.

All times are local, AST (UTC+3).

The knockout stage was the second and final stage of the tournament, after the group stage. It began on 11 December with the quarter-finals and ended on 18 December following the final match that was held at Lusail Stadium in Lusail. The best two teams from each group (8 in total) advanced to the knockout stage to compete in a singles-elimination tournament. A match for third place was scheduled to be played between the two losing teams in the semi-finals.

If the match was level at the end of the original playing time, two halves of extra time were played (15 minutes each) and followed, if necessary, by a penalty shoot-out to determine the winners. Below is an arc for the knockout stage of the tournament. Teams in bold indicate the winners of the match.

There were 77 goals scored in 31 matches, for an average of 2.48 goals per match.

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3 goals

2 goals

1 goal

1 own goal

The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament. They were all sponsored by Adidas, except for the FIFA Fair Play Trophy.

The final ranking of the tournament is reported below.

As per statistical convention in football, matches decided in extra time are counted as wins and losses, while matches decided by penalty shoot-outs are counted as draws.

The official mascot of the 2025 FIFA Arab Cup was based on the folk character Juha.

• Official website