Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Iraq to ask FIFA to lift ban on home matches

Associated Press Sports

updated 8:14 a.m. ET April 2, 2012

BAGHDAD (AP) -The Iraqi Football Association will ask FIFA to lift the ban on home international matches at stadiums across the country, federation member Abdul-Khaliq Massoud said Monday.

Officials will travel to Zurich this month to meet with FIFA executives.

"The delegation will seek approval to lift the ban on holding official matches in our stadiums," Massoud said. "We hope that the FIFA officials will reply positively to our request."

Massoud said they will present FIFA with evidence that Iraq is safe and capable of hosting international matches.

"These evidence will include Iraq's success in holding the Arab summit on security and logistics levels plus the trouble-free matches in the Iraqi league," Massoud said.

FIFA banned Iraq from playing home qualifiers for the 2014 World Cup and 2012 Olympics after a power outage in a stadium in the Kurdish city of Irbil during Iraq's World Cup qualifier against Jordan in September.

The match was suspended for more than five minutes when the stadium lights went off because of the power outage. Jordan won 2-0.

? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


advertisement

More newsAFP - Getty Images
Maradona's team defends fight

Diego Maradona's Al Wasl club says he did the "honorable thing'' by storming into the stands last week to confront opposition fans who had taunted his girlfriend and players' wives.

United extends lead by winning 2-0 at Blackburn

BLACKBURN, England (AP) -Antonio Valencia and Ashley Young scored late goals to give Manchester United a 2-0 win at Blackburn on Monday, extending the defending champion's lead to five points in the Premier League.

superbowl kick off time 2012 new york giants hot wings recipe 7 layer dip recipe chris carter superbowl 2012 kickoff time what time is the super bowl 2012

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.