FIFA the cause of the crisis: what do the regulations say about Bahrain's demand for the points from the Qatar match?

Major crisis in the Gulf tournament

Controversy has raged over the past few hours after Bahrain suddenly demanded the points from their match against Qatar in the Arabian Gulf Cup, the "Gulf 27" tournament.

According to Qatar's "Al Kass" channels, Bahrain lodged an objection to the participation of Qatar player Assim Madibo in the 2-0 defeat they suffered yesterday, Thursday, in the first round of the group stage.

Reason for Bahrain's protest

Bahrain's national team believe the Qatari player should never have been eligible for the match in the first place. Their argument? He was serving a five-match suspension from the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

FIFA had handed Madibo that five-match ban after his red card for a violent tackle on Canada's Ismaël Koné in the second round of the group stage.

Since facing Canada, Qatar have played just one more match, against Bosnia and Herzegovina in the third round of the group stage, before crashing out of the tournament. They played nothing else ahead of the Gulf competition.

What do the regulations say?

FIFA's disciplinary code is clear on this. Any suspension a player picks up during the World Cup that goes unserved within the tournament, whether through elimination or the competition simply ending, rolls over to the next official international fixture.

The first clause of Article 38 rules out friendly matches as a setting for serving those bans. The game must be an official international one.

FIFA is the cause of the crisis

What clouds this case is a first in FIFA's history: they have included the current edition of the Gulf Cup within the international calendar.

That inclusion came about because the tournament falls during the international break, between 23 September and 6 October, taking advantage of the extended window created by merging two international breaks into one.

Bahrain's national team believe FIFA's inclusion of these matches makes it an official tournament, one to which the first clause of Article 38 of the disciplinary regulations applies.

Qatar's national team see it differently. They argue that FIFA slotted the matches into the international calendar simply because they fall during the international break, unlike previous editions, and that this does not amount to recognition as an official tournament to which World Cup sanctions apply.