@mcintinhos 1h
There's a major story brewing around Iraq U20s. FIFA has opened an investigation over age-related queries following several complaints.
Hope there's nothing to that mate.
Should be two decent games today - France vs Ghana at 4pm could be very interesting and if France aren't at their game then I reckon Ghana could get past them. Would love Iraq to beat Uruguay in the 7pm match - just rooting for the underdog.
Good article here on the Iraq U20's:-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2013/jul/10/iraq-under-20-world-cup-fairytaleOn Saturday night, Ali Yaseen was part of the Iraq squad that stunned South Korea on penalties to reach the semi-finals of the Under-20 World Cup in Turkey. On Sunday morning his club back in Iraq, Karbala, announced that their coach, Mohammed Abbas al-Jabouri, had died from the injuries suffered in an attack by anti-terrorism police during a match the previous weekend.
Yaseen, 19, had taken his place on the bench for the game in the knowledge that his coach was in a coma and that seven of his team-mates had been injured in the attack, several of them critically. He knew, too, that if he had not been selected for the Under-20 World Cup, he would most probably have been playing in the match against Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya and could, quite possibly, have ended up in hospital with life-threatening injuries.
Saturday going into Sunday, joy turning to misery. That weekend 10 days ago summed up football – and life – in Iraq. Terror, uncertainty, despair, death – and the very occasional glimmer of hope. How the Iraqi Under-20 team out in Turkey are able to focus on the football is difficult to comprehend, especially as the players were around eight or nine when their country was invaded. Most of their lives have been spent in the dark shadow of war.
The day after Abbas died, AFP reported that a string of attacks across Iraq had killed 15 people, including nine in a bombing at a popular football pitch in the Nahrawan neighbourhood of southeast Baghdad. Most of the victims were said to be under the age of 16.
But even in a country so depressingly accustomed to violence and death, the attack on Abbas stood out. Abbas, 48, who had returned from the Netherlands to help the club two seasons ago, was beaten up by the anti-terrorist police when he tried to protect one of his players, Maitham Hamza, from being attacked. Fighting broke out between around 40 policemen, seven players and the coach, with horrific consequences.
Karbala, after Abbas had been pronounced dead, suspended all their activities and a number of football teams withdrew from their Premier League fixtures, including Sulaymaniyah, Baghdad, Najaf, Kahraba, Senaah and Nafut al-Janub.
The attack was allegedly carried out by SWAT, a branch of the Iraqi police that reports to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which reports directly to the prime minister Nouri al-Maliki. The attack in Karbala, however, was not part of the Shia-Sunni conflict that has ravaged the country for so long.
"The teams are mostly mixed [religions]. Football does not stick with religious groups," says Judit Neurink, a Dutch journalist working for, among others, De Standaard and who set up the Independent Media Centre in Kurdistan. "Yet Karbala is completely Shia, so the team is Shia – as is the SWAT team. So the Shia-Sunni problem is not there in the Karbala incident.
"Why was the team beaten up? It's a good question. The SWAT members are angry young men, many of them brought up without their fathers, having known only violence to solve problems throughout their lives. And probably also because they are football fans, and the team lost again.
"It is important to understand just how important football is in Iraq. Football is always on TV, men are always watching, especially the big clubs like Madrid, Barcelona and the British sides."
The local government in Karbala has issued more than 40 arrest warrants after the incident. There have been demonstrations and the domestic league is in disarray. The country's FA has been widely criticised for not taking stronger actions after the attack – it said it would launch an investigation – and instead threatened to punish the clubs who are not fulfilling their fixtures. The clubs, however, are united in their anger at what has happened.
Fifa, meanwhile, has reacted to Abbas's death by banning Iraq from hosting any friendly matches on home soil, the news coming just three months after a similar ban was lifted. The Iraqi national team managed to play two games in that period, a win against Syria and a defeat by Liberia.
Iraq's senior team have done remarkably well considering the circumstances, winning the Asian Cup in 2007 and therefore qualifying for the Confederations Cup two years later. It has not been straightforward, though, going back to the days when Saddam Hussein's son, Uday, was in charge and tortured players after defeats. Since then, the country's FA has been suspended by Fifa and disbanded by its own government.
And still, somehow, from this mess, a new generation of extremely talented players have emerged.
The Under-20 team's achievement in Turkey is extraordinary. Spain, with their players from Real Madrid, Barcelona, Liverpool and Manchester City, are already out of the tournament. As are Portugal, Paraguay, Chile, Colombia and Nigeria. England, needless to say, are also out. On Wednesday night, amazingly, Iraq take on Uruguay in the semi-finals.
So just how have Iraq managed to get further than all these countries with their fancy training centres and well-paid stars?
"We built this team to be like a family," said the coach, Hakeem Shakir, recently. "When that family succeeds, everyone within it is happy. Underneath it all, there are rules and discipline like in all good families. But we like to enjoy ourselves and we are spontaneous people. That is why our joy is so obvious out on the pitch; it all comes naturally."
Hassanin Mubarak of Iraqsport says: "I think when a person is hungry to succeed, then she or he will always fight for more, and give more, especially compared to someone that has everything handed to them. Many of these players come from poor backgrounds, and it is no surprise that many of the world's best sportsmen or women come from the most deprived regions in the world, such as the favelas of Rio, the shanty towns of Buenos Aires and the slums of Al-Sadr City in Baghdad. One of the most successful sportsmen in Iraq, the late player and coach Ammo Baba once said that Al-Sadr City was a football oil field, because so many of Iraq's best players came from there.
"I think the secret of the Under-20 team is the unity; they play for the people and to bring smiles on the faces of every Iraqi. With each victory, the players who come from all around Iraq shed tears together: they know how important it is for their country."
Before the Under-20 tournament there was a lack of shirts and shorts because the FA's contract with sportswear suppliers Peak had run out and it reportedly even got to a point where the players were asked not to swap shirts after the game because there were not enough left. But it is not as if the players are leaving on the brink of poverty. Some players in Iraq have annual wages as high as $100,000 and there are even some foreign imports in the top flight.
In Turkey, Iraq drew 2-2 with England in their first group game and then beat Egypt and Chile to reach the last 16. There, they saw off South Korea 5-4 on penalties with the score 3-3 after extra-time in an extraordinary match.
The best players? Arguably the striker Farhan Shakor, who scored twice against South Korea and has been one of the stars of the tournament, and the marauding left-back Ali Adnan. Both can be hopeful of offers from teams in the Gulf and, possibly, even in Europe.
Shakir, the indefatigable coach, has also been an inspiration, showing that the Under-19 side's run to the AFC Championship final last year was no fluke. In fact, after that tournament the 50-year-old promised that the side would come back even stronger and win the Under-20 World Cup.
That dream is still alive as Iraq prepare to face Uruguay and the team's success has provided unimaginable joy back home. People have flooded into bars and cafés to watch the games, despite all the recent bombings targeting such places. On Sunday night more than 250 people were crammed into Jungle Night cafe in Baghdad, watching the quarter-final against South Korea. "Of course I was worried about watching the match at a cafe," Fahad, 19, told fifa.com. "But it will not stop me from returning to watch the match against Uruguay."
A whole country is watching and, now, at the semi-final stage, so is an increasing part of the world. "Our game against South Korea was the best thing I've experienced in my career so far," the 17-year-old Shakor told Fifa. "We want to dedicate this victory to the Iraqi people, because we owe them so much. If it wasn't for them, we'd never have come this far. I'm overjoyed, because I was part of a triumph which has made every Iraqi happy."
