Iraq Football Association

The Iraq Football Association (IFA) (Arabic: الاتحاد العراقي لكرة القدم) is the governing body of football in Iraq, controlling the Iraqi national team and the Iraq Stars League.[3][4][5][6][7] The Iraqi Football Association was founded in 1948 and has been a member of FIFA since 1950, the Asian Football Confederation since 1970, and the Sub-confederation regional body West Asian Football Federation since 2001. Iraq is also part of the Union of Arab Football Associations (founded in 1974) and the Arab Gulf Cup Football Federation (founded in 2016). The Iraqi team is commonly known as Usood Al-Rafidain (Arabic: أسود الرافدين), which literally means Lions of Mesopotamia.

Iraq Football Association
AFC
Short nameIFA
Founded1948 (1948)
HeadquartersZayouna, Baghdad, Iraq[1]
FIFA affiliation1950
AFC affiliation1970[2]
WAFF affiliation2001 (founding member)
PresidentAdnan Dirjal
Vice-PresidentAli Jabbar (1st)
Younis Mahmoud (2nd)
Websitewww.ifa.iq

History

The Iraqi Football Association (Ittihad Al-Iraqi Le-Korat Al-Kadem) was formed on October 8, 1948, and was the third sports union to be founded in Iraq after the Track and Field Athletics and the Basketball Federations. The two unions took part at the 1948 Olympic Games in London, held from July 29 to August 14, however the Iraqi FA had not been founded, so no football team took part in the Olympics. It was during the Olympics that the idea of an Iraq Football Association was put forward. During the 1948 London Olympic Games, Iraq's basketball team lost every game by an average of 104 points per game. They scored an average of 23.5 points per game. The team included Iraq's first ever-national football captain Wadud Khalil and another member of Iraq's first ever-national squad in 1951, the outside right Salih Faraj.[8]

First administration

The first Iraqi FA administration was headed by President Obaid Abdullah Al-Mudhayfi and Saadi Jassim as general secretary, with its headquarters in the Sheikh Omar district in Baghdad. The IFA was an association of 14 teams from all over Iraq, they included the Royal Olympic Club (‘Nadi Al-Malikiya Al-Olympiya’), Royal Guards (‘Haris Al-Maliki’), Royal Air Force (‘Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya Al-Malikiya’), Police Schools (‘Madaris Al-Shurta’), Kuliya Al-Askariya (‘Military College’), Dar Al-Mualameen Alaliya (‘Highest Teacher's House’), Casual's Club, Al-Marouf Al-Tarbiya (‘Physical Education’), Kuliya Al-Hakok (‘College of Law’), Quwa Al-Siyara (‘Armoured Cars’) from the capital Baghdad and four other teams Nadi Al-Minaa Al-Basri (Basra Port Club), Sharakat Al-Naft Al-Basra (Basra Petroleum Company) from Basra and branches in the provinces of Mosul and Kirkuk.[8]

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Controversies
See also: Age fraud in association football

The Iraqi youth national teams have been ejected from tournaments for fielding over-age players.[9] In 1989, Iraq was banned for using over-age players in the U-20 World Championships in Saudi Arabia. That ban was extended when Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990.[10]

Competitions

The IFA organises several national competitions, including:

Current title holders
Competition Year Champions Runners-up Next edition
Senior football (men's)
Iraq Stars League 2022–23 Al-Shorta Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya 2023–24
Iraqi Division One 2022–23 Al-Minaa Amanat Baghdad 2023–24
Iraqi Division Two 2022–23 Al-Karma Ghaz Al-Shamal 2023–24
Iraq FA Cup 2022–23 Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya Erbil 2023–24
Iraqi Super Cup 2022 Al-Shorta Al-Karkh 2023
Senior other (men's)
Iraqi Futsal Premier League 2022–23 Naft Al-Basra Masafi Al-Wasat 2023–24
Iraqi Youth Futsal Premier League 2022–23 Naft Al-Basra Masafi Al-Wasat 2023–24
Iraqi Beach Football Premier League 2022–23 Masafi Al-Junoob Masafi Al-Wasat 2023–24
Iraqi Beach Football FA Cup 2022–23 Masafi Al-Wasat Al-Neel 2023–24
Reserves & Youth football (men's)
Iraqi Reserves Premier League 2022–23 Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya Al-Najaf 2023–24
Iraq Reserves Division One 2022–23 Al-Minaa Al-Sinaat Al-Kahrabaiya 2023–24
Iraqi Youth Premier League 2022–23 Erbil Al-Minaa 2023–24
Iraq Youth Division One 2021–22 Al-Nasiriya Duhok 2022–23
Senior football (women's)
Iraqi Women's Football League 2020–21 Naft Al-Shamal Nineveh Girls 2022–23

Association information

As of September 2021, the members of the Iraq Football Association leadership team are:[11][12]

Position Incumbent
President Iraq Adnan Dirjal
First Vice-president Iraq Ali Jabbar
Second Vice-president Iraq Younis Mahmoud
General secretary Iraq Mohammed Farhan Obaid
Treasurer Iraq Abdul-Khaliq Masoud
Technical director England John Whittle
Team coach (men's) Spain Jesús Casas
U-23 coach Iraq Radhi Shenaishil
U-20 coach Iraq Emad Mohammed
U-17 coach Iraq Ahmed Kadhim
Team coach (women's) GermanyNew Zealand Oliver Harder
Futsal coach (men's) Brazil Ricardo "Cacau" Camara Sobral
Futsal coach (women's) Iran Shahnaz Yari
Media/communications manager Iraq Yousif Fi'al
Head of Futsal and Beach Football committee Iraq Ali Abdul-Hussein
Deputy Head of Futsal and Beach Football committee Iraq Zeyad Shamil
Head of Competitions committee Iraq Hayder Aufi
Head of Refereeing committee Iraq Najah Raham
Deputy Head of Refereeing committee Iraq Mohammed Kadhim Arab
Head of Technical committee Iraq Wissam Najib
Head of Disciplinary committee Iraq Ali Wali
Members of the expatriates committee Iraq Zaid Al-Zaidi
Iraq Ali Shehim
Iraq Ahmed Al-Falluji

Other members:[12]

Govand Abdul-Khaliq, Raheem Lafta, Ahmed O. Zamil Al-Mousawi, Firas Nori Bahr Al-Uloom, Mohammed Nasser Shakroun, Ghalib Abbas Al-Zamili, Yahya Zghair, Khalaf Jalal, Ghanim Oraibi, Rasha Talib

List of presidents of IFA

The following is a list of presidents of Iraq Football Association (IFA).

Presidency President Took office Left office
1 Abdullah Al-Muthaifi 1948 1952
2 Akram Fahmi 1953 1954
3 Saadi Hussein Al-Douri 1954 1955
4 Ismail Mohammed 1955 1956
5 Hadi Abbas 1956 1959
6 Adeeb Najeeb 1959 1961
7 Adil Basheer 1961 1964
8 Fahad Juwad Al-Meera 1964 1968
– 1968 1976
9 Moayad Al-Badri 1976 1977
10 Hisham Atta 1977 1980
11 Soryan Tawfeeq 1980 1984
12 Sabah Mirza Mahmoud 1984 1985
13 Uday Hussein 1985 1988
14 Kareem Mahmoud Mulla 1988 1990
15 Uday Hussein 1990 2003
17 Ahmed Radhi 2003 2004
18 Hussein Saeed 2004 2011
19 Najeh Humoud 2011 2014
20 Abdul Khaliq Masood 2014 2020
21 Eyad Al Nadawi 2020 2021
22 Adnan Dirjal 2021 present

See also

References
  1. FIFA.com. "Member Association - Iraq - FIFA.com". www.fifa.com. Archived from the original on March 6, 2019. Retrieved 2020-10-31.
  2. "Tengku re-elected AFC president". The Straits Times. 19 December 1970."Seluroh Asia tetap sokong Sir Stanley". Berita Harian (Malay language). 1 January 1971.
  3. "Football mad Iraq's new field of dreams – Iraq". nzherald.co.nz. NZ Herald News. 2011-10-15. Retrieved 2014-02-18.
  4. "Iraq elect new football head - Football". Al Jazeera English. Retrieved 2014-02-18.
  5. "When Saturday Comes – War games". Wsc.co.uk. 2012-07-09. Retrieved 2014-02-18.
  6. Suzanne Goldenberg. "Uday: career of rape, torture and murder | World news". The Guardian. Retrieved 2014-02-18.
  7. "SI.com – Sports Illustrated – The Magazine – From Sports Illustrated: Son of Saddam – Monday March 24, 2003 05:00 PM". Sportsillustrated.cnn.com. 2003-03-24. Retrieved 2014-02-18.
  8. Mubarak, Hassanin. "Iraqi Football History".
  9. "Massive age fraud in the Iraqi youth team". 17 June 2013. Archived from the original on 2016-06-29. Retrieved 2016-02-03.
  10. Clarey, Christopher (1993-10-16). "SOCCER; Iraqi Soccer Team Takes Its First Shot at a Big Target and Misses". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-05-24.
  11. "Iraq: Association Information". FIFA. Archived from the original on March 6, 2019. Retrieved 2020-06-14.
  12. "The AFC.com - The Asian Football Confederation". The AFC. Retrieved 2020-10-31.
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