SME – Written by: Muhammad Al-Joker
Hours, the Asian Football Cup will kick off in the sports capital, the city of Doha, which has become famous in recent years for organizing many of the major sporting events and events that the region has witnessed. Qatar has become a scene for international events, especially football ones, and from there it began to set off on the right path towards directing the football compass to develop the game in the region and the continent as a whole. In general, we have a good historical relationship with the Asian Cup, especially for the Gulf countries, as they began organizing this tournament 44 years ago in 1980, specifically in the month of September, when the sister State of Kuwait hosted the ninth tournament in which it achieved great technical and administrative success, and success here we mean is Kuwait’s entry into the list of champions through The Golden Team at that time was the period in which we sang praises of its stars, not only in sports, but also in culture, art, literature, and the media, as it lived a period that was the most beautiful, and football was one of the countries with achievements, reputation, and history. It won that day in the midst of events that are very difficult to forget, especially for us, and I remember when we arrived at the airport. Before entering Kuwait, through passport control, one of the employees provoked our old coach, Heshmat Mohajerani, with whom we celebrated a few days ago in the Al-Saada building at Shabab Al-Ahly Club in Dubai, on his eightieth birthday. At that time, Mohajerani was the number one coach on the Asian continents when he led his country to the World Cup in Argentina in 1978, and immediately upon entering, he said to us. The employee of our “shrewd” coach, among us, will defeat you by seven goals, just as we defeated you in the Gulf tournament. Mohajerani replied that the response will be on the field, and indeed on the opening day, the atmosphere is noisy, the celebrations are great, and the fans are gathered from all directions to see the stars of the Blue, which will not be repeated throughout history, and in this famous match our team succeeded. The tie was snatched amidst the astonishment and astonishment of all those present, including officials, administrators, fans and the media. We came out tied with a goal scored by Ahmed Tshombe, who entered history and whose name was included in newspaper publications in Kuwaiti newspapers in their professional glory. The goal, still in my mind, came from a “ball” shot by Salem Saeed, the former international referee, may God bless him. It reminds him of goodness. The ball hit the post and returned to the foot of Ahmed Ali Al-Shaiba, nicknamed “Bashumbi,” who put it into the Kuwait goal net amid great joy…unforgettable memories. After the match, everyone came out amazed at this tie, beating their hands, palm with palm, wondering how our team could draw against a team full of stars from the region. After the end of the opening match, I remember that day. We did not find a car to take us to the current residence of the Messilah Beach Jumeirah Hotel. Because he left the stadium in shock, they left the stadium sadly. Indeed, it was one of the historic days in the path of Emirati football at that time, and the Asian Cup is one of the beautiful and unforgettable stories that must be forgotten. If we repeat it and remember this tournament, when we participated in it, the country had hosted the first qualifiers in July 1979 in Zayed Sports City, which received full sponsorship from the late founding leader Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan, may God rest his soul, who at that time appointed the late Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Nahyan. May God have mercy on him for attending and sponsoring the qualifiers in which Bahrain, Syria and Lebanon participated and witnessed the qualification of our team, along with Syria, to Kuwait. In these qualifiers there were also unforgettable situations and events. We hope to see a tournament full of success and exciting with new memories that we can all enjoy… God is behind the intention.
