For a surprising reason: Bahrain's complaint against Qatar in Gulf Cup 27 rejected

The Arabian Gulf Cup Football Federation has rejected Bahrain's protest against Qatar, lodged after the two sides met on Thursday in the opening round of the group stage at the "Gulf Cup 27" tournament. Qatar won it 2-0.

Qatar's "Al-Kass" channels confirmed that Bahrain protested against the participation of Qatar player Assim Madibo, arguing he had been suspended for five matches at the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

The UAE's "Abu Dhabi Sports" channels reported that the Gulf Federation threw out Bahrain's protest. The surprise? It had nothing to do with the legality of Madibo's participation.

According to those Emirati channels, the request fell foul of the clock. Bahrain missed the legal deadline of two hours from the final whistle, set out in Article (19/1) of the Disciplinary Regulations.

FIFA had banned Madibo for five matches after he was sent off for a violent challenge on Canada player Ismael Kone in the second round of the World Cup group stage.

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

Read also: FIFA the cause of the crisis: what do the regulations say about Bahrain's claim to the points from the Qatar match?

Press reports confirmed that the Qatar Football Association had checked with FIFA over Madibo's eligibility for the tournament before it began, and world football's governing body cleared him to play.

Qatar's federation then presented that correspondence to its Gulf counterpart, which acknowledged Madibo's right to feature and granted him official approval to do so.

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