Fifa lifts three-decade ban on international matches in Iraq
Cities of Erbil, Basra and Karbala allowed to host football games
Fifa has lifted an almost threedecade ban on Iraq hosting international football matches, with the cities of Erbil, Basra and Karbala approved to stage official games.
The three cities had been allowed to organise friendlies in the past year on the condition that the country’s security situation was stable.
“We are allowing international matches to be staged in the cities of Erbil, Basra and Karbala,” Fifa president Gianni Infantino said, after a meeting of the Fifa Council in Bogota on Friday.
The decision was welcomed by the government in Baghdad.
Iraq will host Qatar and Syria for a friendly tournament starting on Wednesday in Basra and the first official games, involving club sides from other nations, could come as early as next month.
“Fifa has given the green light for the resumption but the organisers of the championship must take the final decision,” Mr Infantino said.
Football’s world governing body said it could not yet agree to a request from Iraqi authorities to organise matches in the capital Baghdad, but Mr Infantino promised that the city’s application would continue to be appraised.
Friday’s decision followed an international friendly between Iraq and Saudi Arabia in Basra on February 28 – their first on Iraqi soil in 40 years – after which the government in Baghdad again pushed for the ban to be lifted.
The match in Basra was watched by Asian Football Confederation (AFC) head Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa, who said the time had come to end the three-decade ban.
Sheikh Salman yesterday welcomed the decision: “This is a significant moment in shaping the future of football in Iraq. I congratulate the Iraq Football Association and all their stakeholders in working so hard to achieve this positive outcome for the game in their country.
“Football development in Iraq can only be benefited by the ability of Iraqi football lovers to see matches played on their own soil and to become involved in the game at every level.”
Iraq has not played full internationals on home turf since its 1990 invasion of Kuwait under then-dictator Saddam Hussein.
The ban, covering all but domestic matches, stayed in place even after the United States-led invasion of 2003 toppled Saddam.
It was briefly lifted in 2012, but a power cut during an Iraq-Jordan match in the Iraqi Kurdish capital Erbil led Fifa to promptly reinstate it. Years of insecurity have followed the US-led invasion 15 years ago and ISIL’s occupation of large areas of northern and western Iraq between 2014 and the end of last year has made hosting sports events a major challenge.
The Iraq Football Association welcomed Fifa’s decision but vowed to “spare no effort for games to be played in stadiums in other provinces, including Baghdad”.
“This decision puts our sport back on the rails,” the association said.
Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi, who declared victory over ISIL in December, said the lifting of the Fifa ban was the “fruit of stability in terms of security and of the successes achieved by Iraq”.
For years, the country has been busily building stadiums and lobbying the sport’s stars and governing bodies for a return to the international fold. That effort has come despite the country being plagued by a still-high level of violence.
Iraq’s first home competitive games could take place next month, as two clubs have fixtures in the AFC Cup which were postponed pending Fifa’s decision.
While the ban has been in place Iraq has played its home matches in Iran, Jordan or Qatar.