Salisbury swap Folkestone for Kuwait after 2-0 win
Salisbury FC beat Folkestone Invicta 2-0 at home, then sang about Kuwait.
The Whites won at The Mac Stadium on 26 September in the Enterprise National League South, the sixth tier of English football. After the final whistle, home fans chanted "Kuwait away ole, ole". It was loud. It was joyful. It was a send-off, according to BBC Sport.
The reason is simple. Salisbury flew out for a five-day trip to face Al Qadsia on Wednesday, 30 September. The tie will be played at the Mohammad Al-Hamad Stadium, which holds 22,000 spectators. That is more than five times the capacity of Salisbury's own ground.
Al Qadsia are giants in their own league. They have won more than 50 trophies. Salisbury, by contrast, are a part-time non-league side from Wiltshire. All ticket sales and advertising money from the Kuwait fixture will go to Salisbury.
The squad needed little convincing. All players except Jaiden Bartolo agreed to travel within an hour, with Bartolo away on international duty. Player Luke Russe is among those who made the journey, which the club said would run from 27 September to 1 October, according to Salisbury FC.
There is no rest after the flight home. Salisbury are due back on Thursday before hosting Dulwich Hamlet in the FA Cup third qualifying round on Saturday, 3 October. The qualifying rounds are the early knockout stages where lower-league clubs fight for a place in the main draw.
The Kuwait connection runs deep. Ali Alhamad purchased Salisbury in 2025. The club now describes itself as Kuwaiti-owned and representing Kuwait abroad. Four of its sponsors are from Kuwait, including a front-of-shirt sponsor behind Kuwait's first Sharia-compliant digital bank and a training-kit sponsor linked to an acai brand sold only in Kuwait. Its official Arabic Instagram account has more than 14,000 followers, just below its English profile.
Salisbury also held a summer camp in Kuwait and invited the top three players from a trial session to train with the club. Around 400 trialists took part in the event, according to earlier reporting. Alhamad has claimed that Salisbury are bigger in Kuwait than many Premier League teams are in the UK.
What makes this stand out is the scale of it. A sixth-tier club playing in front of thousands of miles from home, then returning for an FA Cup tie three days later. For Salisbury fans, it is two seasons in one week.
