IRAQIS have celebrated after football`s world governing body, FIFA, lifted the threat of a 12-month ban, clearing the way for the Asian champions to play their World Cup qualifier against Australia in Brisbane on Sunday.Fans gathered around radios and television sets in their thousands to hear the news that FIFA had relented on its threat to suspend Iraq from international competition after the Iraqi Government announced that an order dissolving the Iraqi Olympic Committee did not apply to the Iraqi Football Association.
"After we received the news that our team is to be allowed to go on to the next match, we started to feel better," secondary school pupil Ahmed Abdel Jabbar said.
"Our spirits are up again."
Football is by far the most popular spectator sport in Iraq, and the Desert Foxes` success in the Asian Cup final in Indonesia last year provided a welcome surge of national pride in a country reeling from insurgent and sectarian violence.
"For the past several years, the Iraqi team was the only good thing for us," said one teenager who asked not to be identified.
"Over the past few days, we had feared that we would be out of competition."
Abu Mohammed, 60, said that everyone was now hoping that Iraq`s footballers could put the distractions of recent days behind them and score a much needed win against Australia.
"We want our team to come out victorious, not only against Australia but against all the difficulties that they encountered recently," he said.
Iraq need to salvage at least a point from the game to keep alive their hopes of advancing to the next stage of Asian qualifying for the 2010 World Cup.
They are bottom of their group with just a point, while Australia lead with four points from two matches. China and Qatar are the group`s other two teams.
But the omens are not good. Before heading to Australia on Tuesday, Iraq lost 2-1 in a warm-up match against Thailand.
Tariq Ahmed, head of the IFA arbitration committee, said the players needed to put the worries of the past week behind them and concentrate on winning the game for the fans.
"They have a chance to realise the hopes of millions of Iraqis who love the game," Ahmed said.
"They must win Sunday`s game to erase all the negative publicity we received."
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Agence France-Presse
