Middle Eastern Football Teams Trivia Quiz

Answer: Kuwait

With the Kuwait Premier League commencing in the early 1960s, football quickly grew to become one of the nation's most popular sports. The top teams, performing at the premier level, have ranged in total from six to fourteen in the years since the league's formation though only a small handful of teams, historically, have been consistent winners of its various domestic cups. Kuwait SC and Al-Arabi SC, both based in Kuwait City, are amongst the most prolific of these.

Answer: Bahrain

The Bahraini Premier League, which debuted in the nation in 1956, grew fast as one of the leading sporting establishments in the small Middle Eastern nation. Though the Premier League has, at times, contained only ten teams, it's gone as high as twelve, allowing annual competitors to face off in round robin matches to determine their tiers while the remainder drop to Second Division.

The teams are mostly much older than the league with the Al-Muharraq Sports Club, established in 1928 in Muharraq, winning the league more than two dozen times in the first 50 seasons.

Answer: United Arab Emirates

The top league in the United Arab Emirates is the UAE Pro League and while it started officially in the 1970s it didn't have a formal ruling body until well into the 2000s. Nonetheless, it's operated on the basis of having fourteen clubs which compete for the President's Cup, Super Cup, and League Cup. Al Ain is one of the most prolific of these teams, being champions more than a dozen times since starting in 1968.

As a nation, the UAE first appeared in the FIFA World Cup in 1990 though they failed to pass the Group Stage in this year.

Answer: Qatar

One of Qatar's most popular sports, football saw a massive spike in popularity in advance of its hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup, where it played host to thirty-two teams in the first ever Middle Eastern-hosted version of the event. It would also be Qatar's first time participating with a team at the event.

On the homefront, the Al Sadd Sports Club is by far the most celebrated team in Qatar, having won more than a dozen championships in the Qatar Stars League. Many of Qatar's oldest sports teams, operating out of Doha, date back to the late 1960s.

Answer: Jordan

If you're looking for the highest echelon of Jordan's national football, you'd turn to the Jordanian Pro League which, since 1944 (quite a bit earlier than other Middle Eastern nations), has been the go-to for the nation's top teams. The first of these to win the championship was Al-Faisaly (back in 1944) and it's a lead they kept into the twenty-first century, managing to win countless FA Cups, Super Cups, and other high honours. Based out of Amman International Stadium, they also happen to be the capital city's top home team, even though others play at the same home stadium.

Answer: Iraq

One of the earliest federated sports leagues in Iraq, the Iraq Football Association was created in advance of the Olympics in 1948 and developed over the decades to become well-sustained. At the top, in the Iraqi Premier League, twenty teams compete for the Iraq FA Cup and the Iraqi Super Cup on an annual basis with top players being brought onto the National Team. Iraqi football has, historically, been dominated by four key teams, specifically Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya, Al-Shorta Sports Club, Al-Talaba Sports Club, and Al-Zawraa Sports Club.

Iraq went to its first FIFA World Cup in 1986, debuting alongside Canada and Denmark in Mexico. While Denmark advanced to the Top 16, Iraq and Canada did not pass the Group Stages.

Answer: Lebanon

Initially brought to Lebanon by American universities and immigrants, football has been played, even informally in the nation since the nineteenth century, only being formalized in 1933 with the creation of the Lebanese Football Association. It would be a spotty run with the sport despite the excitement for it.

When Lebanon had its civil war in the 1970s and 1980s, professional games stopped altogether. After the civil war, teams like Ansar and Ahed rose to prominence, claiming consecutive titles into the twentieth century in Beirut.

Answer: Oman

With the Oman Football Association having been created in Muscat in 1978 after years of unregulated football in the Oman Club (formerly the Maqboul Club), dozens of clubs were created, splitting into tiers topped by the Oman Professional League. Dhofar and Fanja SC are both frequent names at the top of the heap, having won the league cups several times over while the Al-Seeb Club, established in 1972, would take nearly five decades to top the Omani League.

Answer: Syria

While football was introduced to Syria near the start of the twentieth century, it took until the 1960s before the Syrian Premier League was established, bringing a dozen of the nation's top teams to the field to compete for the Syrian Cup and the Syrian Super Cup.

The Al-Jaish Sports Club is the most celebrated of the older teams by far, having won a dozen titles in its first five decades. Tishreen SC and Al-Karamah SC are even older, with the latter debuting in 1928, well before the league's formation.

Answer: Saudi Arabia

A frequent FIFA World Cup participant, the Saudi Arabian National Team (The Green Falcons) first qualified for the tournament in 1994, making it to the Round of 16 in the U.S. On the home front, the Saudi Pro League is the top tier of national football. Having started in 1976, it's generally carried sixteen teams (though this has changed) as they battled for the King Cup (or the The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques' Cup).

The Al Hilal Saudi Football Club has been the most celebrated of these teams, managing to get to the finals nearly every other year of their existence.