December 17 – Qatar has again become the focus of FIFA’s world as it prepares to host two FIFA finals in two consecutive days. First up will be the Intercontinental Cup Final between Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) and Flamengo tonight.

PSG as UEFA’s Champions League winners were pre-qualified for the final, while Copa Libertadores winners Flamengo beat Mexico’s Cruz Azul and then Egypt’s Pyramids FC to qualify.

The final of the club competition will be played at the 40,000-capacity Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium in Doha.

September 18 attention will turn to the Arab Cup final that will see Morocco play Jordan at Lusail Stadium, the venue for the 2022 World Cup final.

Both nations have qualified for the 2026 World Cup. Morocco made their way to the Arab Cup final with wins over Syria in the quarter final and the UAE in the semi-final. Jordan, the break out team from the AFC confederation, overcame Iraq and Saudi Arabia to make it through to the final. In 2024 the Jordanians lost to Qatar in the final of the Asian Cup.

The Arab Cup, in its second edition has proved a huge success, building on the inaugural competition held in 2021 in Qatar as a test event for the 2022 World Cup.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the attendance figures that have seen more than 1 million fans attend matches, a 257% increase on 2021 attendance figures.

The four quarterfinals drew a combined crowd of 210,274 spectators, while the combined spectator figures for the 28 group-stageand quarterfinal matches reached 1,022,592 spectators.

The tournament 401,339 spectators to its first 28 games. The total number of fans attending group stage and quarterfinal matchesin 2025 is 2.55 times higher than the same figure for the 2021 tournament.

The two semifinals drew a combined crowd of 96,723 spectators on Monday, taking the total tournament attendance to 1,119,315 spectators across 30 games for an average attendance of 37,310 fans per game.

With the third place and final matches, taking place on Thursday, Qatar’s National Day, the total attendance for all 32 matches of the Arab Cup will likely surpass the 1.2-million-spectators mark.

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