FIFA, the world governing body of soccer, has suspended Iraq from all international soccer competitions.
For those looking for a break from today's dominant topics.
FIFA, the world governing body of soccer, announced Monday a suspension of Iraq from all international competitions with World Cup qualifying under way. According to a Reuters story published on ESPN SoccerNet,
The executive board of world soccer's governing body announced it had imposed the ban after the Iraq government dissolved its National Olympic Committee and national sport federations in breach of FIFA and Olympic regulations.
The board will recommend that the FIFA Congress, which meets in Sydney on Friday, suspends Iraq from all tournaments for 12 months, but left the door open for a reprieve if Baghdad reversed its decision by 1400 GMT on Thursday.
The Iraqi government has screwed up in ways large and small, and I don't know the details of this decree. Undue governmental interference has gotten plenty of countries in trouble with FIFA before. In Iraq, as in the rest of the world, soccer is a big deal. Most will remember that when Iraq won the Asian Cup last year against all odds, the country was mesmerized.
Qualifying in Asia has already begun; after a 1-1 draw with China and a 2-0 loss to Qatar, Iraq is last in the four-team pool. The Friday deadline comes just before Iraq's next scheduled qualifier against Australia in Brisbane on Sunday
The U.S. team, meanwhile, opens qualifying on June 15 with the first of a two-game series against Barbados in Carson, California. The next step for the U.S. would be semifinal pool play, in a pool likely to include Cuba. This means the U.S. team would go to Cuba, and Cuba would come here. When the Olympic qualifying tournament was held in this country in March, seven Cuban players defected, so this should be very interesting.
UPDATE: According to a story from AFP,
BAGHDAD (AFP) — Iraq's suspension from international football by world governing body FIFA sparked howls of dismay among both sportsmen and politicians on Monday and calls for the government to reverse the decision that triggered it.
Vice President Hashemi Tareq Hashemi demanded that the government overturn the dissolution of all of Iraq's sports governing bodies, citing the "international repercussions" that may also see Iraq banned from the Beijing Olympics.
The president of Iraq's dissolved football association, Hussein Saeed, underlined the importance to the unity of his war-battered country of its number one spectator sport, and appealed to FIFA to rethink its decision.
...
The Iraqi government said it sacked its National Olympic Committee and with it all sports federations because the previous committee had lacked a quorum to conduct its meetings and had not held elections for over five years.
The committee's president has been missing since his kidnap in July 2006 and other members have fled the country.
None of this is certainly any surprise in Iraq. It's a wonder they've even managed to compete since the invasion, let alone win the Asian Cup.