FORMER FOOTBALLERS SEEK TO SHAKE UP POLITICS IN IRAQ

Sports heroes hope voters will trust them more than career politicians

In the sweltering heat of Mexico ’86, Ahmed Radhi and Basil Gorgis pulled on their jerseys to represent Iraq’s football team in its sole World Cup Finals.

But now, a third of a century later, they are taking part in a very different contest as parliamentary candidates in next month’s election.

While the World Cup adventure ended in dismal failure, with Iraq crashing out after losing all three of its group games, the former players’ appeal could be a big draw for some voters.

“They already have fans,” says Hussein Hassan, 45, from Baghdad. “It’s now the turn of these stars to put themselves at the service of the people.”

Distrust of politicians before the May 12 vote is high, with 15 years since the toppling of former dictator Saddam Hussein marred by repeated chaos and endemic corruption.

“We have more confidence in them than the politicians, who have changed nothing,” Mr Hassan says.

It is a view that Mr Radhi, scorer of Iraq’s only World Cup Finals goal, takes on board.

“Iraqis need someone who shows that they are focusing on their interests and who will work to guarantee a decent life,” the National Alliance candidate says.

Mr Radhi, 54, says his political group brings together all communities.

The National Alliance is led by Iraq’s Vice President Ayad Allawi, a secular Shiite, and Parliamentary Speaker Salim Al Juburi, a Sunni. It is a union that seeks to move beyond the Shiite-Sunni ethnic division – a major draw for Mr Radhi.

The Alliance’s list of candidates, he says, is liberal and beyond sectarianism. “This is what the people want now.”

Other candidates, sporting or otherwise, have more narrow motivations.

Mr Gorgis is one of the candidates fielded by Abna Al Rafideyn, a group that includes Chaldean Christians, Assyrians and Syriacs. He is now the administrator of the national team and running in the Kurdish city of Erbil, seeking to protect the Christians’ interests.

Standing up for the rights of his community is also what motivates Chaker Sabbar, another former player.

Mr Sabbar, 50, who appeared in every position except goalkeeper during his career, is Sunni, a group that has played second fiddle to the majority Shiites since Saddam’s fall.

He says loved ones cautioned against politics, telling him it will “achieve nothing because no change is possible”.

But he takes no heed in their advice and is running as a candidate in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province in central Iraq. Mr Sabbar is number 10 on the list of the Tamaddun group, which advocates a secular state.

Sunni-majority Ramadi was seized by ISIS in May 2015. It was retaken by government forces less than a year later.

“The people have suffered enormously,” says Mr Sabbar, whose family live in the region. “Now, it is time our interests are defended, like those of other Iraqis.”

Not all of the former footballers are political novices. Mr Radhi stood in the 2014 poll and lost, while another former international, Hassan Farhan, is a politics and military science graduate.

“People have more confidence in sportsmen than politicians, who have weakened the state,” says Mr Farhan, 65, who is with the secular Civil Party.

Others are determined to ensure new investment in sporting facilities to help the country compete again.

“We must think about building a better future for sport,” says former international swimmer Sarmad Abdelilah, now a member of Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi’s Victory Alliance and on the National Olympics Committee.

“There are no athletes in parliament and so there are no laws or institutions to structure Iraqi sport.”

Other contenders include Taleb Faysal, the president of Iraq’s weightlifting federation, who is running for former prime minister Nouri Al Maliki’s Rule of Law Alliance.

But some do not buy into the appeal of sporting veterans.

“We have confidence in none of the candidates because we know they will only think of themselves in parliament,” says Imane Kazem in Baghdad.

There are no athletes in parliament and so there are no laws or institutions to structure Iraqi sport SARMAD ABDELILAH Former international swimmer