Qatar–United Arab Emirates football rivalry

Qatar–United Arab Emirates football rivalry

Other names	Blockade Derby Gulf Derby
Location	AFC WAFF
Teams	Qatar  United Arab Emirates
First meeting	United Arab Emirates 1–0 Qatar 2nd Arabian Gulf Cup Riyadh (17 March 1972)
Latest meeting	Qatar 1–3 United Arab Emirates 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification Al-Rayyan (5 September 2024)
Next meeting	United Arab Emirates v Qatar 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification TBD (19 November 2024)
Statistics
Meetings total	34
Most wins	Qatar (14)
Top scorer	Ali Mabkhout (5)
Largest victory	Qatar 5–0 United Arab Emirates 2021 FIFA Arab Cup Al Khor (10 December 2021)

The Qatar–United Arab Emirates football rivalry is an association football rivalry between two nations, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, which involves the football teams of both nations.

The two nations' rivalry has begun since 1972, however, their rivalry had been largely friendly at first and both Qatar and the United Arab Emirates had no issue facing each other. Beginning in 2017, due to the Qatar diplomatic crisis and the downturn of relations, poor political relations have managed to affect football development, causing the rivalry to gain importance.^[1]

Qatar and the United Arab Emirates had been largely friendly football rivals when the two first met in 1972, a year after independence from Britain. The two countries first met in the 2nd Arabian Gulf Cup, where Qatar lost to the United Arab Emirates 0–1.^[2] Since then, the two nations have met in other 30 occasions. However, only two games happened as friendlies, both ended with Emirati victories.^[2]

The rivalry was initially insignificant until 2017 when the United Arab Emirates actively participated in the Qatar diplomatic crisis, by blockading Qatar in air, land and naval travels. Since then, the rivalry has headed into a more hostile fervor; in 2018 AFC U-19 Championship, captain of the U-19 United Arab Emirates refused to shake hand with the Qatari counterpart, Qatar lost the game 1–2 but eventually qualified for the 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup while the United Arab Emirates was eliminated instead.^[3]

Attempt to separate politics from football proved fruitless, when in 2019 AFC Asian Cup, despite effort to reduce tensions, the United Arab Emirates still banned Qataris from entering the country for the tournament.^[4] Even Qatari officials were also prohibited from entering the country to inspect the perpetration for the competition.^[5][6] Further, in the semi-finals game between two countries, Prince Nahyan bin Zayed Al Nahyan decided to buy all the remaining tickets of the match to distribute for home fans, as a way to cheer the spirit of the United Arab Emirates, meaning that Qatar had to face an entirely hostile crowd. This had generated controversy as the United Arab Emirates were attempting to politicize the match, given the earlier crisis in the relations between two countries.^[7] Despite this, Qatar emerged victoriously with a resounding 4–0 victory on its eventual conquest of the tournament, which was the biggest victory for either of them in their head-to-head history at the time.^[8]

Source:^[9][10]

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Best win
United Arab Emirates	34	11	9	14	39	47	–8	4–1
Qatar	34	14	9	11	47	39	+8	5–0

The bold indicates that the player is still active

Rank	Player	Goals
1	Ali Mabkhout	5
2	Ahmed Khalil	4
3	Adnan Al Talyani	3
	Mohammed Salem Al-Enazi
	Almoez Ali
	Boualem Khoukhi
4	Mansour Muftah	2
	Hassan Al-Haydos
	Zuhair Bakheet
5	various players	1

• Qatar–United Arab Emirates relations
• Qatar diplomatic crisis