Kazma anticipates the Gulf Champions League draw
Kazma Club awaits the draw for the third edition of the Gulf Club Champions League for the 2026-2027 season to determine its path in the group stage. The official draw ceremony is scheduled for today, Monday, at 12:00 PM, via video conference, at the headquarters of the Gulf Football Association in the Qatari capital, Doha.
The Gulf Football Association stated that the group stage matches will be played in a two-legged home-and-away league format, running from October 13 next year until February 17, 2027. The quarter-finals will take place between March 2 and 17, 2027, while the semi-finals and the final will be held between April 23 and 30.
The draw mechanism relies on distributing the 12 participating clubs into four tiers, with three clubs in each tier, based on the Asian Football Confederation’s club ranking for the 2026-2027 season.
The first tier includes Al-Ittihad and Neom from Saudi Arabia, alongside Al-Nassr from the UAE. The second tier comprises Ajman from the UAE, Al-Duhail, and Qatar SC from Qatar.
According to the competition regulations, the 12 teams will be divided into three groups of four, with the principle that no two clubs from the same country will be placed in the same group.
The top two teams from each group, along with the two best third-placed teams across the three groups, will advance to the quarter-finals.
Kazma, returning to Gulf competitions after a period of absence, aims to win its third title in the tournament. The club previously won the championship twice, in 1987 on home soil and in 1994 when hosted by Al-Ain in the UAE, during the era when the competition was held in a centralized format. Kazma also finished as runners-up in 1988 and 1997.
The "Orange" team has undergone a solid preparation period for the new season, which begins domestically on Thursday with a match against Al-Tadamun in the opening round of the Zain Premier League. The club concluded a training camp in the Turkish city of Izmit, where they played four friendly matches, achieving encouraging results without suffering any defeats. They secured a 4-1 victory over Saudi side Al-Raed, a 2-1 win against Bahraini club Al-Khalidiya, a 2-2 draw with Qatari side Al-Waab, and a 1-1 draw with Algerian club Olympique de El Affroun.
Upon returning to Kuwait, they faced Al-Kuwait, the champion of the league in the past five seasons, and defeated them 2-0. On another note, Al-Kuwait Club announced the appointment of its former professional, Syrian Feras Al-Khatib, as the new head coach of the football team, replacing Portuguese manager Alexandre Santos, who was dismissed two days before the start of the Zain Premier League.
Tomorrow’s match against Al-Arabi, for whom Al-Khatib played for more than 10 seasons across two stints, will be the first major test for the Syrian coach, who managed Fehail Club over the past four seasons.
