Qatar and the United Arab Emirates had been largely friendly football rivals when the two first met in 1972, a year after independence from Britain. The two countries first met in the
2nd Arabian Gulf Cup, where Qatar lost to the United Arab Emirates 0–1. Since then, the two nations have met in another 37 occasions. However, only two games happened as friendlies, both ended with Emirati victories. Attempt to separate politics from football proved fruitless, when in
2019 AFC Asian Cup, despite effort to reduce tensions, the United Arab Emirates still banned Qataris from entering the country for the tournament. Even Qatari officials were also prohibited from entering the country to inspect the perpetration for the competition. Further, in the
semi-finals game between two countries, Prince
Nahyan bin Zayed Al Nahyan decided to buy all the remaining tickets of the match to distribute for home fans, as a way to cheer the spirit of the United Arab Emirates, meaning that Qatar had to face an entirely hostile crowd. This had generated controversy as the United Arab Emirates were attempting to politicize the match, given the earlier crisis in the relations between two countries. Despite this, Qatar emerged victoriously with a resounding 4–0 victory on its eventual conquest of the tournament, which was the biggest victory for either of them in their head-to-head history at the time. When the two nations met in Qatar for the
fourth round of the
2026 FIFA World Cup qualification, riots broke out after Qatar scored its second goal as visiting Emirati fans threw plastic bottles and footwear with some fans even invading the pitch;
Pedro Miguel even celebrated in front of the frustrated Emiratis further escalating the situation. Security had to interfere to deescalate the whole issue and some Emirati players tried to calm the crowd. As Qatar won the match 2–1 and qualified for the World Cup, the UAE would qualify for the fifth round where they'd eventually lose to
Iraq and miss out on the
2026 FIFA World Cup. An Emirati football team official was banned for 16 matches while Qatar's
Tarek Salman was given a two match ban for this incident. ==Matches==