Iraq set to defend the Asia Cup title in Qatar

Source: GMANEWS.TV






BAGHDAD — Iraq was the feel good story of the last Asian Cup, winning an unlikely title to give its war-weary residents something to celebrate. Four years later, it comes in as defending champion aiming to prove that title was no fluke.

Since its historic victory, Iraq football has fallen victim to political infighting that got the national federation suspended by FIFA from world football and inconsistent form from the team, which has slipped from 58th to 101st in the world rankings.

But with the arrival of coach Wolfgang Sidka in August, the team appears to have found some of the magic that contributed to its amazing run in 2007. It has won eight matches since September, including wins over fellow Asian Cup contenders Saudi Arabia and it reached the Gulf Cup semifinals — where it lost on penalties to Kuwait — after beating Bahrain.

"Our ambition is to be the champions again," Iraq captain Younis Mahmoud said. "Through winning the cup, we did what America and the government couldn't do, which was to unite the country."

Team manager Abdul-Khaliq Masoud said the squad is in a tough group, but is confident of advancing to the knockout stage.

"Our expectations are high because we have a team of talented, experienced players," Masoud said. "We know that our group is very difficult, but we have full trust in our team and think we can win the crown again."

Sidka, who has previously coached the Bahrain national side and a Qatar club team, is cautiously optimistic about Iraq's chances. It is drawn in a relatively tough group that includes archrival Iran along with North Korea and United Arab Emirates.

"First, we have the match with Iran and that's our neighbors and our rivals," Sidka said in an interview on the Asian Football Confederation website. "We'll try to reach the quarterfinals and then we will see."

For many football fans, Iraq's surprising run in 2007 remains one of the great Cinderella stories of that year.

After beating Australia in the group stage, Iraq beat South Korea in a semifinal shootout and then edged three-time champion Saudi Arabia in the final. The team's first continental victory set off a frenzy of national pride, prompting wild dancing in the streets and bringing the deeply divided nation together at a time of some of the worst sectarian fighting in centuries raged between Sunni and Shiite militias across the country.

The streets of Iraq are more peaceful now but political tensions have spilled over to the football boardrooms. Two coaches were fired after the team failed to qualify for the 2010 World Cup and the team was banned by FIFA for five months in 2009-2010 after Iraq's Olympic committee disbanded the country's football federation for alleged financial and administrative irregularities.

Since the U.S.-led invasion, Iraq's Shiite-dominated government has wanted to purge football — the most popular sport in Iraq — of any officials with alleged ties to the deposed Sunni-dominated regime of Saddam Hussein.

In July, men in military-style uniforms raided the football federation's offices carrying arrest warrants for several of its officials, including the Sunni president Hussein Saeed. The government denied any responsibility for the raid.

A few weeks later, a scheduled poll to elect new leadership of the Iraqi Football Association was canceled when a Sunni faction supporting the incumbent president met in Irbil, claiming it was too dangerous to travel to Baghdad, where backers of Shiite challenger Falah Hassan had gathered.

The team avoided a second suspension after FIFA gave both groups a year to settle their differences and elect a new board.

Najih Hamoud, the deputy president of the IFA, insisted the leadership row has not affected the team's performance.

"The problems had no affect on the team," Hamoud said. "They focused on training and playing teams from Palestine, Syria and the Gulf."