FOOTBALL – BAHRAIN’S Riffa are back in action tonight in the 2026-27 Gulf Club Champions League.
The kingdom’s representatives have travelled to Baghdad, Iraq to face off with hosts Al Zawra’a FC in their third fixture of Group B in the 12-team tournament, which is organised and run by the Gulf Football Federation.
The game is scheduled for a 5.30pm kick-off and it will be played at Al Zawra’a Stadium in the Iraqi capital.
Prior to today’s contest, the official technical and co-ordination meeting took place yesterday, attended by representatives from both clubs. All matters related to the game were discussed and the uniforms for this evening were approved, with Riffa wearing their traditional sky blue kits and Zawra’a to play in white.
Riffa are coming off a resounding 4-1 home victory over Qatar SC of Qatar last week and will be hoping to continue their winning ways. That result followed their 0-3 defeat against Al Nasr of the UAE in their opening fixture in Dubai.
Group A in the championship’s preliminary round features Neom SC from Saudi Arabia, Al Duhail SC from Qatar, Al Shabab SC from Oman, and Shaab Hadramaut SC from Yemen; while Group C is composed of Al Ettifaq SC of Saudi, Ajman SC of the UAE, Erbil SC from Iraq, and Kazma SC from Kuwait.
Fixtures in this stage of the tournament are being held in home-and-away format. Following the preliminaries, the top two teams from each of the three groups will advance to the quarter-finals, together with the two best third-placed sides, with all ties to be contested over two legs.