Good news as Iraq play a home game at last

When you spend a lot of your time writing about, watching, managing and talking about football it is very easy to slip into a fantasy world where football becomes more important than it actually might be. I don’t sign up to Bill Shankley’s famous ‘tongue in cheek’ saying that football is more important than life and death itself, but you do often see the game playing a prominent role in people’s lives.

Stronger

The Iraqi football team is traditionally one of the stronger teams in the region but since the US-led invasion of the country in 2003, they have been unable to play any games in their home country.

Despite only being able to play games away from home and the turmoil in many parts of their country, the Iraq national side won a magnificent victory in the 2007 Asian Cup. They beat Saudi Arabia in the final and that led to them appearing at the recent Confederations Cup tournament in South Africa as the Asian representatives.

Force

At the Confederations Cup Iraq didn’t manage to qualify from the group stage but showed that they a force to be reckoned with by drawing with New Zealand and South Africa and only going down by the odd-goal to European champions, Spain.

Now, at long last, Iraq have been able to play a game in their own country. Their side took to the field against Palestine at the Franso Hariri stadium in Irbil, a town in the north of Iraq. Of course, the Palestinians are well placed to know what footballers go through in countries beset by conflict.

The game was used to try to show that good times lie ahead for Iraq and the players released a number of white doves, the internationally recognised symbol of peace, before the game kicked off.

Fittingly, the Iraqis were able to celebrate a victory in their return to home soil, winning the game 3-0.

Barrier

With Iraqi people from all over the country travelling to watch the game and the Palestinian side being prepared to play in the country, it is now really hoped that the violence that had effectively ended the sport in Iraq, will now stop being a barrier to teams going to play there.

I do not pretend to understand politics and the situation in Iraq and I am in no way qualified to comment upon it. I simply write about football but am constantly surprised at the positive effect the game can have on people who normally live in awful circumstances.

Together

People often talk about the crowd violence at football matches and I agree that is a scourge on the game and needs to be stopped, but it is amazing how often football can be something that actually brings people together, and is a powerful tool in the battle to make things better.

Tomorrow, the Iraqi side will again take on the Palestinians, but this time the game will be played at the Al-Shaab stadium in Baghdad. That game will in some ways be even more significant as it must have seemed for many years that Iraq would never take to the field in their own capital city.

Remarkable

During these years of not being able to represent their country at home, the Iraqi side have achieved quite remarkable success. 2004 saw them reach the quarter-finals of the Asian Cup and also qualify for the Summer Olympics where they eventually finished fourth. That year also saw them pick up the Olympic ‘fair play’ award and the AFC team of the year award. In 2005, Iraq won the gold medal at the West Asian games and 2006 saw a siver medal at the Asian games.

As we know, the AFC Asian Cup was won in 2007 which led to them being named as the AFC team of the year, Al-Ahram’s Arab team of the year and World Soccer magazine’s world team of the year.

Safe

That is all some achievement for a team that couldn’t play at home. Now, that long exile from the country has been broken and it is hoped that in time, more countries will feel safe to travel to Iraq to take on their national side.

A look at what they have achieved in the most difficult of circumstances should send a wave of concern around the footballing powers of the world. Who can guess what this team may be capable of if they can get back to some sort of normality?