Ali Al Hamad’s club has been drawn at home to Sholing after a 3–0 qualifying victory, weeks after taking its players to Kuwait.
Kuwaiti-owned Salisbury FC will host Sholing in the first round of the FA Cup after Monday’s draw gave Ali Al Hamad’s club another home tie. The Football Association confirmed the pairing on 19 October, with first-round matches scheduled for the weekend of 7 November.
The National League South side qualified by beating Eastbourne Borough 3–0, reaching this stage for the first time since the present club was formed in 2014. For supporters in Kuwait, the result follows a more direct introduction to Salisbury: the squad visited the country last month, played Al-Qadsia and met local schoolchildren.
That connection gives the cup run a relevance beyond the owner’s nationality. Al Hamad has been developing links between Salisbury’s English football operations and Kuwait, including plans for a youth academy. The first team’s progress now provides a sporting focus for those relationships, while adding another chapter to a club rebuilt through the efforts of its local supporters.
A second-half breakthrough
Salisbury’s match report on the Eastbourne victory records a decisive contribution from Brian Dutton’s substitutes. Josh Hedges replaced Luke Russe at half-time and opened the scoring after the interval. Ollie Morgan added the second three minutes later, before Jeremy Sivi headed in a Caine Bradbury corner in the 73rd minute.
The scoreline followed an important intervention at the other end. With the match still level, goalkeeper Will Henry kept out a close-range header in the 52nd minute. Eastbourne had arrived on a nine-match winning run, but Salisbury scored all three goals in the second half to settle the tie. Hedges and Sivi’s goals meant two of the three scorers had come off the bench.
The result moved Salisbury beyond qualifying and into the main draw. It also gave Dutton’s side another home cup fixture, with the next visitors arriving after a qualifying campaign of their own.
A club rebuilt by its community
The achievement belongs to the current Salisbury FC, rather than representing the city’s first appearance at this level of the competition. As the club’s official history explains, the present organisation was established in December 2014 after the demise of Salisbury City. Its predecessor had reached the FA Cup third round in the 2011/12 season.
Rebuilding involved more than assembling a team. Supporters and volunteers helped restore the Raymond McEnhill Stadium to use after it had been shut for a year. A friendly against AFC Totton in April 2015 brought 729 spectators back to the ground, before the new club began competitive football in the Wessex League later that year.
Salisbury won that league in its first season and eventually secured promotion to National League South through the 2024 play-offs. Al Hamad became the owner in 2025, after the club had survived its first campaign at that level. The latest cup progress therefore sits within a longer rebuilding story, connecting the supporters who brought football back to the ground with the club’s more recent Kuwaiti ownership.
Taking Salisbury to Kuwait
The club’s September announcement of its Kuwait trip set out both sporting and commercial purposes. Players and staff were due to travel from 27 September to 1 October, with the Al-Qadsia friendly arranged for 30 September at Mohammad Al-Hamad Stadium. Salisbury said commercial profits from the trip and ticket-sale revenue would go to the club.
The timing placed the visit between domestic fixtures and ahead of the next FA Cup qualifying round. Salisbury also said it had received written permission from the English and Kuwaiti football associations. The announcement presented the visit as an opportunity for the players and coaching staff to experience football in different surroundings alongside its commercial aims.
Reporting from the visit, Kuwait Times on 1 October described school visits, meetings with supporters and exchanges involving Kuwaiti coaches and young players. It also reported that Salisbury was preparing a Kuwait academy based on its English youth programme, which Al Hamad said had about 450 players.
“We’re using the resources we have to help transfer the experience we have there to Kuwait,” Al Hamad told the newspaper. The proposed academy was part of that longer-term work. The visit showed how those ties were already extending beyond ownership, with players meeting children in Kuwait and coaches gaining exposure to Salisbury’s training environment.
Sholing arrive with their own cup run
Sholing’s route to the draw provides a clear reason to look beyond league status when assessing the tie. The Southern League Premier South club’s official results show four qualifying victories: 2–0 against Andover New Street, 1–0 at Tiverton Town, 2–1 at Ebbsfleet United and 2–0 against SE Dons.
Those results amount to seven goals scored and one conceded, with two wins away from home. Sholing therefore travel to Salisbury having already demonstrated they can progress on the road. Both clubs enter the fixture with a run of qualifying victories behind them and a place in the second round at stake.
The FA has set first-round prize payments at £47,750 for winners and £15,800 for losing clubs. Exact scheduling and broadcast details were still pending when the draw was announced. For Salisbury’s supporters in England and Kuwait, Sholing is now the next match to follow in this cup campaign.
