World soccer’s governing body FIFA on Friday announced its decision to suspend the Iraqi Football Association (IFA) until further notice “because of government interference.”
“In accordance with FIFA statutes, the clubs and representative teams of Iraq are no longer permitted to take part in international matches, whether friendly or competitive,” read a statement on the FIFA Web site. “Furthermore, the IFA is deprived of its right to vote at any congresses held by international bodies and is no longer entitled to receive financial assistance.”
Despite FIFA’s decision, Iraq’s women’s under-16 team will be allowed to compete in a youth tournament organized by the Norwegian soccer federation that is scheduled to take place in Jordan from today until next Sunday.
On Tuesday, FIFA gave the authorities in Baghdad a 72-hour ultimatum to reinstate the IFA or risk suspension from international soccer.
Police on Wednesday seized control of the IFA’s offices after its governing board was dissolved on charges of links to executed dictator Saddam Hussein.
FIFA said that the current members of the IFA’s Executive Committee were “the sole recognized interlocutors for FIFA” and called for them to be “rapidly reinstated.”
“The measures taken by the Iraqi Olympic Committee [IOC] and the security forces are unacceptable to FIFA as they stand in total contradiction of IFA and FIFA statutes,” the statement said.
The Iraqi government described the decision as unjust.
“It’s an unfair decision [that] was taken without hearing the Iraqi Olympic Committee,” government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said.
“We feel that the IFA was behind the decision of FIFA to suspend the Iraqi federation,” said Dabbagh, who is also responsible for organizing IFA elections. “We are going to work with the Iraqi Olympic Committee to apply the national laws in respect of the FIFA regulations. FIFA has to respect the positions of the football clubs of Iraq who don’t want to accept the executive board of the IFA, [which] is involved in corruption and violation of Iraqi laws.”
IFA chief Hussein Saeed, however, said the “FIFA decision was expected after the IOC’s decision to dissolve the IFA, which is an illegal approach.”
Soccer is highly popular in Iraq and its importance was boosted by the national side’s victory in the 2007 Asian Nations Cup.
FIFA has expressed growing concern about possible political interference in the sport in Iraq. In September, it gave the IFA until April 30 to elect a new board.
Iraq was briefly suspended from international football in May last year after the government dissolved the national Olympic Committee. It was reinstated only after the government said the IFA had not been affected.
TO THE TOP: After securing the international title on Saturday, Team Taiwan were to face Las Vegas to potentially win their 18th Little League World Series championship A team from Taipei’s Dong Yuan Elementary School won the Little League Baseball World Series’ international title on Saturday by defeating Aruba 1-0 in the annual baseball tournament held in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The Taiwan team, competing under the name Chinese Taipei, were after press time last night to face a team from Las Vegas, Nevada, which beat a team from Fairfield, Connecticut, in the US championship 8-2. Taiwan are seeking to win their first Little League Baseball World Series title since 1996. “Really haven’t taken a moment to data dump right now on Taiwan,” Nevada manager T.J. Fescher said. “They’re a
Marc Marquez continued his winning streak as he cruised to victory in the Hungarian GP sprint by two seconds on Saturday night to pad his championship lead. It was a seventh straight Sprint victory for the Spaniard, who has also won the last six longer Sunday grand prix races on his factory Ducati. Fabio Di Giannantonio, an Italian with the VR46 Ducati satellite team was a distant second at Balaton Park, followed by his team-mate and compatriot Franco Morbidelli third. Marquez, a six-time world champion, started the race from pole position. “I felt someone really close on the first corner, from there I
Former European champions Celtic exited the UEFA Champions League in the qualifiers after a 3-2 penalty shoot-out defeat at Kazakhstan’s Kairat Almaty on Tuesday, following two goalless legs in the playoff tie. Kairat are to compete in the competition proper for the first time, while Norway’s Bodo/Glimt and Cyprus’s Pafos also secured debut appearances after coming through the playoffs. Celtic’s night ended in disappointment as they missed three penalties in the shoot-out, Daizen Maeda failing with the decisive spot-kick. The slugfest of a match went into extra-time with neither side finding the net and few overall chances, echoing the first
Russian Diana Shnaider continued her impressive winning streak in tour-level finals at the Monterrey Open on Saturday, beating compatriot Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 in the WTA 500 event’s final. Shnaider had little trouble in the opening set but struggled in a topsy-turvy second, as Alexandrova clinched the set’s fifth and decisive break at 5-4 to force a decider. Third-seed Shnaider carved out an advantage early on in the third set when she broke Alexandrova in the first game and held serve to go 2-0 up, an advantage she would not relinquish. World No. 12 Shnaider is now unbeaten in her last five
RSS