1966 Arab Cup

1966 Arab Cup
Tournament details
Host country	Iraq
Dates	1–10 April
Teams	10 (from 2 confederations)
Venue	3 (in 3 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Iraq (2nd title)
Runners-up	Syria
Third place	Libya
Fourth place	Lebanon
Tournament statistics
Matches played	20
Goals scored	98 (4.9 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Ali Al-Biski; (10 goals)
Best player	Shidrak Yousif
	← 1964 1985 →

The 1966 Arab Cup was the third edition of the Arab Cup hosted in Baghdad, Iraq. The host nation and defending champions Iraq won the title for the 2nd time.^[1]

At the tournament's closing ceremony, the chairman of the Arab Cup Organising Committee announced that the next edition of the Arab Cup would be held in 1967 in Damascus, Syria,^[2] however, this did not end up taking place.

Participating teams

A total of 10 teams participated in the competition. United Arab Republic initially agreed to take part,^[3] but later withdrew.^[4] Sudan were invited to participate but declined.^[5]

The 10 participating teams were:

Team	Qualified as	Previous appearances in tournament^[a]
Iraq	Hosts & holders	1 (1964)
Bahrain	Invitee	0 (debut)
Jordan	Invitee	2 (1963, 1964)
Kuwait	Invitee	2 (1963, 1964)
Lebanon	Invitee	2 (1963, 1964)
Libya	Invitee	1 (1964)
North Yemen	Invitee	0 (debut)
Oman	Invitee	0 (debut)
Palestine	Invitee	0 (debut)
Syria	Invitee	1 (1963)

Notes

^ Bold indicates champion for that year, Italic indicates host.

Venues

Baghdad	Habbaniyah	Kut
Al-Kashafa Stadium	Al-Habbaniyah Stadium	Al-Kut Stadium
Capacity: 14,000	Capacity: 5,000	Capacity: 5,000

Squads

Group stage

Group A

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Iraq	4	3	1	0	15	3	+12	7
Lebanon	4	3	1	0	10	3	+7	7
Kuwait	4	1	1	2	10	9	+1	3
Jordan	4	1	0	3	7	9	–2	2
Bahrain	4	0	1	3	7	25	–28	1

1 April 1966

Iraq	3–1	Kuwait
Yousif 19' Dhiab 28' Atta 78'		Al-Dawla 66'

Al-Kashafa Stadium, Baghdad

Referee: Mamdouh Khourma (Jordan)

2 April 1966

Lebanon	6–1	Bahrain
El-Sharki Chatila Berjaoui Abou Murad Altounian		Ayub

Al-Kashafa Stadium, Baghdad

Referee: Mamdouh Khourma (Jordan)

2 April 1966

Iraq	2–1	Jordan
Assad Atta		Al-Shaqran 22'

Al-Kashafa Stadium, Baghdad

Referee: Rashad Hawasly (Syria)

3 April 1966

Lebanon	2–1	Kuwait
El-Sharki 2' Apo 62'		Al-Dawla 26'

Al-Kashafa Stadium, Baghdad

Referee: Salih Faraj (Iraq)

5 April 1966

10:00 UTC+3

Iraq	10–1	Bahrain
Ismail 6' Dhiab 18', 42', 49', 66' Jameel 25', 55' Dawood 35' Hameed 39' Najim		Salmeen 60'

Al-Kashafa Stadium, Baghdad

Referee: Rashad Hawasly (Syria)

5 April 1966

Lebanon	2–1	Jordan
El-Sharki 56' Abou Murad 59'		Issa 14'

Al-Kashafa Stadium, Baghdad

Referee: Salih Faraj (Iraq)

6 April 1966

Kuwait	4–4	Bahrain
Al-Dawla 20', 35', 59' Al-Masoud 24'		Saleem 14', 32' Waleed 33' Ayub 35'

Al-Habbaniyah Stadium, Habbaniyah

Referee: Rashad Hawasly (Syria)

7 April 1966

Jordan	5–1	Bahrain
Issa 22' (?) Al-Adwan 60' ? ?		Zalekh

Al-Kashafa Stadium, Baghdad

Referee: Fahmi Al-Qaimaqchi (Iraq)

7 April 1966

Iraq	0–0	Lebanon

Al-Kashafa Stadium, Baghdad

Referee: Mamdouh Khourma (Jordan)

8 April 1966

Kuwait	4–0	Jordan
Al-Dawla 2', 63', 71' Al-Khatib 42'

Al-Kashafa Stadium, Baghdad

Referee: Fahmi Al-Qaimaqchi (Iraq)

Group B

Oman abandoned their first match against Libya with 10 minutes left due to a disputed decision while they were losing 21–0, and subsequently withdrew from the tournament.

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Syria	3	2	1	0	11	1	+10	5
Libya	3	1	2	0	14	1	+13	4
Palestine	3	1	1	1	9	5	+4	3
North Yemen	3	0	0	3	0	27	–27	0
Oman	Withdrew

1 April 1966

Libya	1–1	Palestine
Al-Biski 35'		Al-Samari 75'

Al-Kashafa Stadium, Baghdad

Referee: Salih Faraj (Iraq)

2 April 1966

Syria	7–0	North Yemen
Alian 16' Markarian 42', 44' Haddad 52' Kezberi 64', 66' Idlibi 88'

Al-Kashafa Stadium, Baghdad

Referee: Fahmi Al-Qaimaqchi (Iraq)

3 April 1966

Libya	21–0^{[n 1]}	Oman
Ben Soueid ?', ?', ?', ?', ?', ?', ?', ?', ?' Al-Biski ?', ?', ?', ?', ?', ?', ?' Al-Jahani ?', ?', ?', ?' Ben Zayed ?'	Abandoned in 80'

Al-Kashafa Stadium, Baghdad

Referee: Rashad Hawasly (Syria)

4 April 1966

Syria	0–0	Libya

Al-Kashafa Stadium, Baghdad

Referee: Fahmi Al-Qaimaqchi (Iraq)

4 April 1966

Palestine	7–0	North Yemen
Al-Samari 28', 65', 86', 88' Al-Arabi 75' Al-Maghrebi 76' Taha 82'

Al-Kashafa Stadium, Baghdad

Referee: Mamdouh Khourma (Jordan)

6 April 1966

Syria	4–1	Palestine
Kaoulekian 29', 51', 53' Haddad 69'		Al-Maghrebi 47'

Al-Kashafa Stadium, Baghdad

Referee: Salih Faraj (Iraq)

6 April 1966

Libya	13–0	North Yemen
Ben Soueid 1', 24', 50', 54', 70' Al-Biski 34', 40', 53', 63', 78' Al-Ahwal 3', 19' Al-Khatiti 61'

Al-Kut Stadium, Kut

Referee: Mamdouh Khourma (Jordan)

Knock-out stage

Semi-finals		Final

April 9, 1966 – Baghdad

Iraq	3
		April 10, 1966 – Baghdad
Libya	1
		Iraq	2
April 9, 1966 – Baghdad
		Syria	1
Syria	1

Lebanon	0
		Third place

		April 10, 1966 – Baghdad

		Libya	6

		Lebanon	1

Semi-finals

9 April 1966

Iraq	3–1	Libya
Mahmoud 12' Balla 22' (pen.) Atta 74'		Al-Biski 65'

Al-Kashafa Stadium, Baghdad

Referee: Mamdouh Khourma (Jordan)

9 April 1966

Syria	1–0	Lebanon
Kaoulekian 48'

Al-Kashafa Stadium, Baghdad

Referee: Salih Faraj (Iraq)

Third place play-off

10 April 1966

Libya	6–1	Lebanon
Al-Biski 31', 33', 71' Al-Jahani 42', 55' Al-Ahwal 69'		El-Sharki 6'

Al-Kashafa Stadium, Baghdad

Referee: Rashad Hawasly (Syria)

Final

10 April 1966

18:00 UTC+3

Iraq	2–1	Syria
Ismail 65', 81'		Idlibi 33'

Al-Kashafa Stadium, Baghdad

Attendance: 20,000

Referee: Mamdouh Khourma (Jordan)

Goalscorers

Libya's match against Oman is not counted. There were 98 goals scored in 20 matches, for an average of 4.9 goals per match.

10 goals

Ali Al-Biski^[6]

8 goals

Abdulrahman Al-Dawla

5 goals

Nouri Dhiab
Ahmed Ben Soueid
Hosam Al-Samari

4 goals

Adnan "El-Sharki" Mekdash
Avadis Kaoulekian

3 goals

Hisham Atta
Gorgis Ismail
Adel Issa
Ahmed Al-Ahwal

2 goals

Adnan Ayub
Salem "Saleem" Mubarak
Amer Jameel
Joseph Abou Murad
Levon Altounian
Mahmoud Al-Jahani
Ibrahim Al-Maghrebi
Azmi Haddad
Nureddin Idlibi
Ghasan Kezberi
Hagop Markarian

1 goal

Ahmed Salmeen
Naser Waleed
Hasan Zalekh
Mahmoud Assad
Hassan Balla
Salman Dawood
Qais Hameed
Qasim Mahmoud
Mohammed Najim
Shidrak Yousif
Mustafa Al-Adwan
Ali Al-Shaqran
Mohammed Al-Khatib
Mohammed Al-Masoud
Mahmoud Berjaoui
Mohammed Chatila
Abraham Kasabian
Abdul-Kadir Al-Khatiti
Mohammed Al-Arabi
Omar Al-Sheikh Taha
Ahmed Alian

Notes and references

Notes

^ Oman withdrew the tournament after its first match against Libya, protesting a penalty free-kick decision of the referee at 80'. The match and results were not counted.

References

^ نهائي كأس العرب 1966 - Al-Gardenia
^ "3rd Arab Football Cup Tournament Ends". Baghdad News. 12 April 1966.
^ "U.A.R. will take part in Arab Cup". The Iraq Times. 22 February 1966.
^ "Arab Football Cup tournament in progress". The Iraq Times. 5 April 1966.
^ "National Trainer on Soccer Prospects". The Iraq Times. 4 March 1966.
^ "Ali Al-Baski, the historical goal scorer for Libyan football ... and the star of records". Al Wasat. Retrieved 10 August 2020.

External links

Details in RSSSF

[6] Bold indicates champion for that year, Italic indicates host.

[withrawal-7] Oman withdrew the tournament after its first match against Libya, protesting a penalty free-kick decision of the referee at 80'. The match and results were not counted.

[1] نهائي كأس العرب 1966 - Al-Gardenia

[2] "3rd Arab Football Cup Tournament Ends". Baghdad News. 12 April 1966.

[3] "U.A.R. will take part in Arab Cup". The Iraq Times. 22 February 1966.

[4] "Arab Football Cup tournament in progress". The Iraq Times. 5 April 1966.

[5] "National Trainer on Soccer Prospects". The Iraq Times. 4 March 1966.

[8] "Ali Al-Baski, the historical goal scorer for Libyan football ... and the star of records". Al Wasat. Retrieved 10 August 2020.

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