{{short description|Upcoming international association football tournament for Arab nations.}}
The 2025 FIFA Arab Cup is an upcoming international association football tournament organized by [[FIFA]] for national teams from the Arab world. It is scheduled to take place in [[Qatar]] in December 2025. This edition will serve as a significant preparatory event in the lead-up to the [[2026 FIFA World Cup]], replacing the defunct [[FIFA Confederations Cup]] in the FIFA international calendar as a test tournament for future major events.
Background
The FIFA Arab Cup was revived in 2021, with [[Qatar]] hosting the tournament from November to December of that year. That event, which was won by [[Algeria national football team|Algeria]], was widely regarded as a successful dress rehearsal for the [[2022 FIFA World Cup]] held in the same country a year later. Following its success, FIFA President [[Gianni Infantino]] expressed interest in making the tournament a regular fixture in the international calendar.On 19 December 2023, FIFA officially announced that the competition would return in 2025, taking place once again in Qatar. The decision was confirmed during the [[FIFA Council]] meeting held prior to the [[2023 FIFA Club World Cup]] final. This tournament is positioned to fill the void left by the discontinuation of the FIFA Confederations Cup, which previously served as a test event for World Cup hosts and allowed FIFA to gauge operational readiness for major tournaments.
Hosting
[[Qatar]] was confirmed as the host nation for the 2025 FIFA Arab Cup. The country previously hosted the successful 2021 edition and the acclaimed 2022 FIFA World Cup, demonstrating its significant capacity and state-of-the-art infrastructure for staging major international football tournaments. Hosting the 2025 Arab Cup will further solidify Qatar's role as a major hub for international sporting events in the Middle East.Participants
The tournament is expected to feature national teams from countries affiliated with FIFA and geographically or culturally considered part of the Arab world. These typically include members of the [[Union of Arab Football Associations]] (UAFA) from both the [[AFC]] (Asia) and [[CAF]] (Africa) confederations. The exact number of participating teams and the qualification format are yet to be announced, but the 2021 edition featured 16 teams in its final phase, with additional teams participating in a preliminary qualification round.Format
Details regarding the tournament format, including the number of groups, progression rules for the group stage, and structure of the knockout rounds, will be confirmed closer to the event. It is anticipated to follow a similar structure to the 2021 edition, which involved a preliminary round for lower-ranked teams, followed by a group stage and a single-elimination knockout phase.Venues
Specific venues for the 2025 FIFA Arab Cup have not been announced. However, given Qatar's extensive modern football infrastructure, including the purpose-built and refurbished stadiums used for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, it is highly probable that some of these world-class facilities will be utilized for the tournament.Broadcasting
Information on broadcasting rights and official media partners for the 2025 FIFA Arab Cup will be released by FIFA in due course.See also
- [[FIFA Arab Cup]]
- [[2021 FIFA Arab Cup]]
- [[FIFA World Cup]]
- [[Union of Arab Football Associations]]
[[Category:FIFA Arab Cup]] [[Category:2025 in association football]] [[Category:International association football competitions hosted by Qatar]] [[Category:Upcoming association football competitions]]