The tournament features the top 16 national teams from the Middle East and Northern Africa and will act as a test run for the World Cup.
It replaces the traditional World Cup warm-up event, the FIFA Confederations Cup, with matches taking place at six of the seven stadiums which will host World Cup matches in 2022.
The tournament will consist of a group stage and knockout rounds, with 16 teams split into four groups of four where the top two from each will then progress to the quarter-finals.
Australia’s World Cup qualifying rivals Saudi Arabia and Oman will take part in the Arab Cup alongside fellow AFC teams Iraq, Bahrain, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, the United Arab Emirates and hosts Qatar.
African powerhouse Egypt will also take part as well as Algeria, Mauritania, Morocco, Sudan and Tunisia.
Matchday one kicks off with a clash between Tunisia and Mauritania on December 1 (AEDT), before the group stage wraps up on Wednesday, December 8 (AEDT).
The knockout stage of the FIFA Arab cup is scheduled to get underway on Saturday, December 11 (AEDT) with four quarter-final matches.
The semi-finals, which will be broadcast LIVE and FREE on SBS, take place on Thursday, December 16 (AEDT).
The tournament wraps up on Sunday, December 19 (AEDT) with the final which will also be broadcast LIVE on SBS and SBS on Demand.
The Groups
Group A
Hosts Qatar and automatic qualifiers Iraq will be joined by Oman and Bahrain.
The former booked their place at the expense of Somalia, while the latter saw off Kuwait.
Being an all-Gulf nations section, it is difficult to predict who will go beyond the group stage, particularly after Bahrain’s stellar performance against Kuwait.
Group B
Tunisia’s fortunes seem to have recently become entwined with those of Mauritania, with the pair meeting on numerous occasions over the last couple of years.
After sharing a group at the 2019 CAF Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt, they found themselves pitted together once more in the second round of qualifying for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
It comes as no surprise then to see them sharing a section at the Arab Cup, along with Syria and the UAE.
