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The general public learned more about the format of the 2025 FIFA Arab Cup on Friday night when the preliminary match ups involved the bottom ranked 14 sides was revealed.
Much like four years ago federations were informed and no concurrent announcement was made on the FIFA website.
Four years ago, the fourteen teams not to be awarded a bye were seeded based on FIFA ranking. That remains the case for the 2025 edition.
For the preliminaries, instead of matching the teams NBA-style- matching the highest ranked team against the lowest ranked- a confederational split was used.
Palestine, as the fourth strongest Asian team in the preliminary, will meet Libya Africa’s fourth best team.
The rest of the match ups are as follows:
Preliminary 1: Oman (1) vs. Somalia (7)
Preliminary 2: Bahrain (2) vs. Djibouti (6)
Preliminary 3: Syria (3) vs. South Sudan (5)
Preliminary 4: Palestine (4) vs. Libya (4)
Preliminary 5: Lebanon (5) vs. Sudan (3)
Preliminary 6: Kuwait (6) vs. Mauritania (2)
Preliminary 7: Yemen (7) vs. Comoros (1)
Winners of Preliminaries 1-3 are expected to be entered into Pot 3 with the rest of the teams left to make up Pot 4.
Palestine have faced Libya twice since admission to FIFA in 1998. The teams last met at the 2011 Pan Arab Games. A late Imad Zatara goal gave Palestine a 1-1 draw and eventually proved to be the result that powered them into the knockout stages at Libya’s expense.
The two sides also drew at the 1999 Pan Arab Games with Palestine scoring with virtually the first and last kicks of the game in a 2-2 draw.
The teams also met at the 1953 Pan Arab Games (a 5-2 win for Libya), the 1965 Pan Arab Games (a 4-2 win for Libya) and the 1966 Arab Cup (a 1-1 draw).
FIFA will broadcast the draw live on its website and streaming platform, FIFA+
