Why Salisbury are 'bigger than many Premier League teams' in Kuwait — SkimNews
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- Salisbury FC travelled to Kuwait for a five-day trip to face Al Qadsia — a club that has won more than 50 trophies — with all squad members except Jaiden Bartolo (on international duty) agreeing to go within an hour of being asked.
- Owner Ali Alhamad, who purchased the National League South club in 2025, claims Salisbury is "bigger than many Premier League teams" in Kuwait, where four of the club's sponsors are based and the official Arabic Instagram account has more than 14,000 followers.
- The match will be played at the Mohammad Al-Hamad Stadium, which holds 22,000 spectators — more than five times the capacity of Salisbury's Raymond McEnhill Stadium.
- Salisbury set up a summer camp and trial session in Kuwait, with the top three performers training with the first team during pre-season, and all ticket sales and advertising revenue from the trip going to the club.
- Players will visit local restaurants, schools and universities during the stay, an exchange Alhamad framed as building the club "properly all the way from the bottom" rather than "throwing in money" with promotion as the sole aim.
- Salisbury return home the day after the Kuwait match to face Dulwich Hamlet in the FA Cup third qualifying round on Saturday.
Why it matters: A National League South side generating four Kuwaiti sponsors and an Arabic-language Instagram audience rivaling its English account demonstrates a commercial model that bypasses traditional English football economics. Alhamad's approach — using owner-tied international links for revenue rather than chasing promotion through spending — gives non-league clubs a concrete financial path. Salisbury's FA Cup tie at Dulwich Hamlet becomes the first test of whether the trip strengthens or disrupts their domestic form.
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