Why Salisbury are 'bigger than many Premier League teams' in Kuwait

As with every home game, the Salisbury FC players and coaching staff went to embrace the fans in the Andrews Terrace at The Mac Stadium after Saturday's 2-0 win against Folkestone Invicta.

Alongside the normal applause and cheers, they were greeted with a chant that isn't a regular from the songbook.

"Kuwait away ole, ole," sang fans of the National League South outfit.

The players clapped back with an extra buzz - within 24 hours they would be travelling to the Middle East.

"Straight away we all said, 'yeah, we're all in," explains Salisbury player Luke Russe.

"It's a unique opportunity and as players, we are so thankful to everybody involved in making this trip happen. I've been involved in this level for a long time now and I've never had an experience like it."

The five-day trip involves the club facing one of Kuwait's most successful teams on Wednesday, Al Qadsia, who have won more than 50 trophies, before returning on Thursday to play Saturday's FA Cup third qualifying round against Dulwich Hamlet.

It comes as part of the club's continued link with Kuwait through their owner Ali Alhamad, who purchased the club in 2025.

The club hopes the trip will offer significant commercial growth and, for the players, an opportunity to experience football in a new environment and culture.

The Mohammad Al-Hamad Stadium holds 22,000 spectators, more than five times that of Salisbury's The Mac.

"We'd love to win the game," says Russe. "But at the same time I think it's more about the experience and about the club as a whole, going over there, living that way of life and experiencing the game.

"We've got a very young group, so for them to experience that and kind of experience cultures and differences is great.

"It'll be a fantastic opportunity for us players, for the staff, and I think it'll bring the whole club even closer to what we are now."

The players will get to visit local restaurants, try local food and coffee, visit schools and universities, and hold a question and answer session for locals to understand how an English football club operates from the perspective of owner Alhamad.

"It will help the players themselves with opening up their horizons into different cultures, different countries, experiencing other footballing nations and other styles of football," he says.

The country's interest in Salisbury is evident.

Four of the club's sponsors are from Kuwait, including the front of shirt sponsor for a company that created the country's first Sharia-compliant digital bank, and the training kit represents a popular Acai company that can only be bought in Kuwait.

On Instagram the official Arabic account of Salisbury FC has more than 14,000 followers - only slightly fewer than their official English profile.

When the squad arrived in Kuwait they were greeted by a small group of fans, while school children interacted with them as if they were Premier League players.

"I would even go further than saying that Salisbury in Kuwait is bigger than many of the Premier League teams in the UK," says Alhamad.

"So I am not exaggerating when I do say that it is a huge name in Kuwait but what's more important than the size is we are contributing a lot to the local community here in Kuwait and to the children and the future of the football in Kuwait.

"Salisbury really is an integral part of opening those avenues and helping the youth here to be better in all the aspects we're looking for."

The eagerness the players showed shocked Alhamad, with all of the squad, except Jaiden Bartolo who is on international duty, agreeing to go within an hour.

Along with the cultural experience, the club is also using this as a way to grow financially, with all ticket sales and advertisement money going to Salisbury.

Meanwhile, Salisbury have set up a summer camp in the country and ran a trial session where the top three players trained with the first team during pre-season.

"It's quite simple in my mind. If you do what other people do, you'll just get the same results everyone else does," says Alhamad.

"Football in England, especially in the non-league, is a brutal business. So just throwing in money to the football club with the aim of getting promotion is fool's gold, in my opinion.

"The right way to do it is to build it properly all the way from the bottom and if you just limit yourself to one market, which is the city or town that you are in, that is pretty limited.

"With social media and the avenues we have, such as being in Kuwait and the Gulf and Arab regions. That's a huge untapped market that is thirsty for English football."

People in Kuwait are avid watchers of the Premier League but non-league is still very much an unknown commodity in the country.

"People are not properly educated in the fact that the non-league is actually a really high quality and that is also an indirect goal of mine with this match," he adds.

"We're here to show them, you're belittling, playing the sixth tier of English football, the second step of the English non-league.

"We'll show you what we have and you never know, maybe the sixth tier of English football will beat the top tier on the biggest team in Kuwait.