Iraq to ask FIFA to lift ban on home matches

By foxsports
Published

The Iraqi Football Association will ask FIFA to lift the ban on home international matches at stadiums across the country.

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,'' federation member Abdul-Khaliq Massoud said Monday. ''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.

Massoud cited ''Iraq's success in holding the Arab summit on security and logistics levels, plus the trouble-free matches in the Iraqi league.''

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.