Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani opened the Arabian Gulf Cup at Khalifa International Stadium in Doha on the evening of 26 November, with a show featuring a documentary film about the history of the competition, a fireworks display and the entry into the stadium of the flags of the participating countries. Bahrain, the UAE and Saudi Arabia were late entrants into the competition, in a sign that tensions between Qatar and its GCC-3 opponents may at last be easing, almost two-and-a-half years after they launched a boycott of Doha in June 2017.
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