Fifa gives Iraq blessing for return to home football for first time in three decades
Iraq’s Prime Minister today hailed a decision by Fifa to lift a home ban on competitive international football matches.
The country’s national side last played an official home game in 1990.
Gianni Infantino, the president of football’s world governing body Fifa, yesterday announced the lifting of a ban on stadiums in Basra, Karbala and Erbil at the Fifa Council Meeting in Bogota.
Iraq premier Haider al-Abadi said Fifa’s move was a result of the country’s “security and stability”.
Qatar and Syria will be hosted in a friendly tournament on 21 March in Basra.
Iraq has been forced to play its home matches in Iran, Jordan or Doha. And while it has played a handful of friendly games in Basra – including an exhibition game against Saudi Arabia last month – the country has been starved of proper international games for almost three decades.
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The country’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990 prompted Fifa to first put the ban in place, citing security concerns.
Since Saddam Hussein’s removal from power in 2003 by US-led forces, the ban has been intermittently lifted only to be quickly reinstated amid safety fears, most recently in the war against Islamic State.
“This is a significant moment in shaping the future of football in Iraq,” AFC president Shaikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa said in a statement.
Infantino refrained from approving an application to stage games in Baghdad, saying further studies were required before the ban could be removed in the country’s capital.
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