ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – As Basra prepares to host the Saudi Arabian national team for a friendly on February 28, the Iraqi government is calling on the world football body FIFA to lift its ban on competitive internationals. Iraq has been banned from hosting international tournaments for almost three decades. An embargo was placed on the country in response to Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990. Owning to security concerns and economic instability, the ban remained in place even after the 2003 US invasion. Hopes were raised when the ban was temporarily lifted in 2012, paving the way for Erbil to host an Iraq-Jordan match. However, the game was interrupted by a power outage, leading FIFA to reimpose the ban. Although it is now allowed to host Gulf friendlies at its stadiums in Erbil, Basra and Karbala, Iraq is now pushing for the ban to be fully lifted. Since the defeat of ISIS in December 2017, FIFA is showing signs of relaxing the ban. Baghdad has implemented measures to improve security by banning weapons at matches and renovating the country’s stadiums. Ahead of next week’s friendly between Iraq and Saudi Arabia – the first time the Saudi national team has played in Iraq in almost 40 years – Iraqi Sports and Youth Minister Abdulhussein Abttan told AFP the match is an important opportunity to show FIFA that Iraq is ready. “Politics is present in every domain, and Saudi Arabia has major political weight,” said Abttan. “The presence of the Saudi team in Iraq means a lot to us.” “I hope that this [Saudi] match will inspire other national teams to visit Iraq, which will help support our case for a total lifting of FIFA’s ban on matches in our stadiums,” he added. “We are also counting on the teams of Bahrain, Qatar and Iran, all of which also have political influence in sports.”
