Iraqi Football is Frightening

No word on whether Sayid was involved in the raid.

When Uday Hussein was the head of the Iraqi Olympic Committee, he would often have football players tortured after losses.

Between beating them on the soles of their feet, shaving their heads and forcing them to kick a concrete “football”, the penalty for failure was severe for the Iraqi national side. Uday’s “motivational” tactics were designed to return Iraq to the days of the Golden Generation in the 1970s and 1980s when the national side finished 4th in the Asian Cup, won the Asian games and qualified for both the World Cup and the Olympics.

One of the members of that team was Hussein Saeed, who was a key player on the 1980, 1984 and 1988 Olympic sides and the 1986 World Cup squad (0-0-3; -3 GD). In an international career that spanned from 1976 to 1990, Saeed scored 63 goals in 126 matches to achieve legendary status in Iraq.

Under Uday, Saeed was made a senior member of the Iraq Football Association (IFA) as a reward for his service, but the country was banned from the Asian games and most Arab competitions, falling all the way to 139th in the FIFA rankings. Saeed maintained his position, mostly due to his propensity for identifying (and delivering) poorly-performing players to Uday’s goon squad, but he was reviled by the Shia majority of Iraqi citizens. It was the efforts of the coalition government to remove Saeed from power that resulted in a 5 month ban (November 2009 through March 2010) by FIFA for governmental interference.

Since then, Hussein Saeed has lived in exile in Jordan as the IFA president and he agreed that his reign had been “a distraction” to the potential success of the national football team. Although FIFA has asked that the former governing members be reinstated, the IFA has called for new elections with the specific intent of removing Saeed from power. To that end, the IFA had scheduled meetings for the coming weekend in the Kurdish city of Irbil (although the Associated Press lists Saeed as a candidate for the position). That process has potentially been put on hold indefinitely as the result of a raid of the IFA offices by a group of masked, armed men.

Over 20 men in military uniforms and driving Humvees arrived at the IFA offices bearing arrest warrants for several senior officials, including Saeed. However, an official from the Interior Ministery stated that he had no idea whether the warrants were legitimate or from where the “soldiers” came. It is possible that the raid was an attempt to intimidate officials or influence voting ahead of Saturday’s elections, and some have speculated that it was an act of terrorism.

Indeed, just a few hours ago Iraqi spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh stated that the individuals involved in the raid were not acting in an official capacity and that the government will be conducting an investigation into the events. FIFA is sure to be very interested in the results of that investigation with an eye on suspending Iraq from international football yet again if it is determined that there was more governmental interference.