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Sporting Witness: Kuwait at the 1982 World Cup

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Kuwait at the 1982 World Cup

24/11/2022 GMT

BBC World Service - Sporting Witness, Kuwait at the 1982 World Cup

The Gulf state's first and only World Cup appearance, with a camel as team mascot

The story of the Gulf state's first and only World Cup appearance, with a camel as team mascot.

With the the Middle East's first football World Cup underway, we look back to when Kuwait made its first and only appearance at the World Cup in 1982. The amateur side put in respectable performances against France and England. But press attention focused on the Kuwaitis’ team mascot, a camel called Haydoo, who became such a fan favourite that he even inspired a hit song. Sumaya Bakhsh talked to Kuwait's captain at the tournament, Saad Al-Houti, about how Haydoo came to represent national pride for a team that had been dismissed by the foreign media as a bunch of camel-herders. This programme was first broadcast in 2021. 

(Photo: Kuwait players celebrate during the 1982 World Cup. Credit: Getty Images)

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