Tomorrow, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will host the eighth edition of the Arab States Under-20 Football Cup, in which 18 teams will take part.
The Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz Sports City Stadium in Abha and the Damak Club Stadium in Khamis Mushait province will host championship matches that will last until August 6 next year.
The Saudi Arabian national team and its Mauritanian counterpart will cut the opening ribbon of the tournament when they meet at the city’s Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz Stadium in the first group, tomorrow at 5 pm, followed by the match between the national teams of the UAE and Jordan for the second group at 9 pm at the Damak Club Stadium .
According to the draw of the tournament, the Saudi Arabia team took first place in the first group with the teams of Iraq and Mauritania, the teams of the Emirates, Jordan and Yemen entered the second group, the teams of Algeria and Lebanon entered the third group. and Libya, while the fourth group included the teams of Egypt, Oman and Somalia, and the fifth group included the teams of Tunisia, Bahrain and Djibouti. The sixth group included Morocco, Palestine and Somalia.
The host Saudi Arabia team enters the tournament as the title holder crowned in the last edition held in Egypt last year after beating their Algerian counterpart in the final match to become the most awarded green team. title of the Arab States Cup for youth teams under 20 in partnership with the national team of Morocco has two titles each and is the most qualified for the final match 5 times in the last seven editions.
The first tournament was held in Morocco in 1983 and the Iraqi team won their title after beating the national team, while the Saudi Arabian team won the title of the second tournament in 1985 by defeating hosts Algeria in the final match.
Iraq hosted a third tournament in 1989 and lost in the final to Morocco, which also culminated in the fourth tournament it hosted in 2011 after defeating the Saudi team in the final match.
The fifth edition took place in Jordan in 2012 and the Tunisian team was crowned after defeating the Saudi team in the final match, while the Kingdom hosted the sixth edition in 2020 and Senegal won its title after beating Tunisia in the final match, and finally, Al-Akhdar was crowned with the title of the previous “seventh” edition of 2021 after his victory over Algeria in the final of the tournament hosted by Egypt.