UNDER discreet security, the Iraqi national football squad was yesterday preparing ahead of its friendly game against Cyprus today in Limassol.
The venue for the match is the Tsirion stadium, where the Iraqis held a training session last night. The team arrived on the island from a tour of the Middle East.
Iraqi football has been through dire times since the 2003 US-led invasion, with stadiums wrecked, little money for equipment, and violence so rampant their foreign manager, a German, was forced to quit his post after fearing for his life.
Football federation boss Hussein Said said Iraq, a nation big on football, was looking to resurrect the sport on a national level and rekindle their former glory.
Twenty years ago, the Iraqi national team was regarded as one of the best in the Middle East, qualifying for the 1986 World Cup finals in Mexico.
Conditions, however, began to deteriorate in the wake of the first Gulf War in 1990 and worsened when Saddam Hussein’s son Uday took control of the team.
Last year Iraq’s players captured the imagination by reaching the semi-final of the Olympic games in Athens, where they were placed fourth.
Yesterday the team trained on the grounds of the Tsirio stadium under the watchful eye of Cypriot police.
Both police officials and KOP (Cyprus Football Federation) confirmed that, though extra security was being enforced, this was nowhere near the draconian measures taken during the recent games on the island featuring Turkish side Trabzonspor or Maccabi of Israel.
Limassol police told the Cyprus Mail that additional manpower was assigned to guarding the Iraqi mission, but that this was “standard procedure”.
Similar measures would be taken today at the stadium during the match, which kicks off at 7pm.
Akram Ahmed Salman, team captain in the halcyon days of the 1980s and now the Iraqi federation’s technical director, said yesterday they were “very pleased” with their stay in Cyprus.
A chief editor for Iraqi newspaper Al Zaman who is on the island with the team told the Cyprus Mail some 50 Iraqi residents of Cyprus braved the afternoon heat to watch their players train yesterday.
Today’s match against Cyprus is Iraq’s fourth international fixture so far this year; the Iraqis have lost 2-1 to Australia in Perth, beaten Jordan 2-1 and tied 2-2 with Bahrain.
For the Cypriot team, this is their first game (friendly or competitive) in five months.
Next week the squad play away to the Faroe Isles in a 2006 World Cup qualifier.
