Iraqi National Football Team / World Championships

Iraq
جمهورية العراق (Arabic) Ǧumhūriyyat al-ʿIrāq
كۆماری عێراق (Kurd.) Komara Îraqê

World Cup record goalscorer:	Ahmed Radhi (1)
World Cup record players:	7 players (3 each)
Rank :	70
Balance sheet
3 World Cup games 0 wins 0 draws 3 defeats 1: 4 goals
statistics
First World Cup game Iraq 0: 1 Paraguay Toluca , MEX ; 4th June 1986
Biggest World Cup defeats Iraq 0: 1 Paraguay Toluca , MEX ; June 4, 1986 Iraq 1-2 Belgium Toluca , MEX ; June 8, 1986 Iraq 0-1 Mexico Toluca , MEX ; June 11, 1986
successes
World Championship
Participation in the finals	1 ( first : 1986 )
Best results	Preliminary round
Best placements in the countries that host the FIFA World Cup
(As of July 2018 )

The article contains a detailed description of the Iraqi national soccer team at world championships . Iraq took part in a soccer world championship only once.

overview

year	Host country	Participation until ...	Last opponent	Result	Trainer	Comments and special features
1930	Uruguay	not participated				Not an independent state
1934	Italy	not participated				Not a member of FIFA
1938	France	not participated				Not a member of FIFA
1950	Brazil	not participated				Not a member of FIFA
1954	Switzerland	not participated				First international match only in 1957
1958	Sweden	not participated
1962	Chile	not participated
1966	England	not participated
1970	Mexico	not participated
1974	Germany	not qualified				In the qualification of Australia failed.
1978	Argentina	withdrawn
1982	Spain	not qualified				In the qualification in the 1st round to Saudi Arabia failed.
1986	Mexico	Preliminary round	Paraguay , Belgium , Mexico	23.	Evaristo de Macedo	Eliminated as last group.
1990	Italy	not qualified				Qatar failed in the first round of qualification . Qatar then failed in the final qualifying round.
1994	United States	not qualified				In the qualification in the final round of Saudi Arabia and South Korea failed.
1998	France	not qualified				Kazakhstan failed in the first round of qualification . Kazakhstan then failed in the second qualifying round.
2002	South Korea / Japan	not qualified				In the qualification in the second round of Saudi Arabia and Iran failed, which failed in the intercontinental playoff.
2006	Germany	not qualified				Uzbekistan failed in the qualification in the second round , which failed in the third round.
2010	South Africa	not qualified				In the qualification in the 3rd round failed to Australia and Qatar , which failed in the fourth round.
2014	Brazil	not qualified				In the qualification in the 4th round of Japan and Australia failed.
2018	Russia	not qualified				In qualifying , the team met Australia , Japan , Saudi Arabia , the United Arab Emirates and Thailand in the third round and missed the final round as fifth.
2022	Qatar

Statistics (data including 2018: 21 World Championships)

• No participation, as no independent state, no FIFA member or no registration: 10 × (48%; 1930, 1934, 1938, 1950, 1954, 1958, 1962, 1966, 1970 and 1978)
• Unqualified: 10 × (48%; 1974, 1982, 1990, 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014 and 2018)
• Athletic qualification: 1 × (5% or 9% of the attempts)
  • Preliminary round: 1 × (5%; 1986)

World Cup tournaments

World Championships 1930 to 1970

Iraq gained independence in 1932, but the Iraqi Football Association was not founded until 1948 and incorporated into FIFA in 1950. As a result, Iraq could not take part in the first four World Cup tournaments. But Iraq did not take part in the following qualifications until 1970 either.

1974 World Cup

On March 11, 1973, Iraq played the first World Cup qualifying game against Australia at the qualifying tournament in Sydney and lost 3-1. This was followed by two wins against New Zealand , a win against Indonesia and a draw against Australia and Indonesia, so that in the end they took second place behind Australia, with Iraq being eliminated. Australia then qualified as Asia-Oceania representative for the World Cup in the Federal Republic of Germany by playing three games against South Korea .

World Championship 1978

Iraq was supposed to face Iran , Saudi Arabia and Syria in the first qualifying round , but withdrew.

World Championship 1982

In the first qualifying round , Iraq failed to Saudi Arabia and could only win against Qatar , Bahrain and Syria.

1986 World Championship

In qualifying for the second World Cup in Mexico , Iraq had to play its home games on a neutral pitch due to the First Gulf War , but was still able to qualify for the first time. In the first round, Iraq prevailed against Qatar and Jordan , while Lebanon , which had also been drawn , withdrew their team after four major defeats. In the West Asian semi-finals, they were able to prevail with 3: 2 and 1: 2 due to the away goals rule against the United Arab Emirates . The West Asian final was also won 0-0 and 3-1 against Syria. Iraq was thus qualified as a representative of West Asia for the World Cup finals in Mexico.

In Mexico, the Iraqis faced Paraguay in their first World Cup game and lost 1-0. The second group game against Belgium was also lost. After all, Ahmed Radhi scored the only World Cup goal for the Iraqis in a 2-1 draw. With a final 0-1 defeat against hosts Mexico , Iraq was eliminated from the bottom of the group and said goodbye to the World Cup for at least 36 years.

World Cup 1990

In qualifying for the second World Cup in Italy , Iraq was unable to prevail against Qatar in the first group stage , as the last game against Qatar only scored 2-2, which meant that the Iraqis lacked one point to advance. Jordan and Oman were relegated to their places.

World Championship 1994

In qualifying for the World Cup in the USA , Iraq was able to prevail as group winners at tournaments in Jordan and China against China , Yemen , Jordan and Pakistan , scoring 28 goals and losing only the last game against China. In the final group with Saudi Arabia , Japan (see football match Japan - Iraq 1993 ), South Korea , Iran and North Korea , Iraq only finished fourth and could not qualify for the World Cup finals.

World Championship 1998

In qualifying for the second World Cup in France , Iraq was eliminated in the first round against Kazakhstan , to which both games were lost. Only against the second group opponent Pakistan were both games won.

World Championship 2002

In addition to the two co-hosts South Korea and Japan, two other Asian teams qualified directly for the first World Cup in Asia . Another had the chance to qualify through the intercontinental playoffs. In the first round, Iraq prevailed in tournaments in Iraq and Kazakhstan as group winners ahead of the tied Kazakhs with the better goal difference, as more goals were scored against Nepal and Macau . In the second round, however, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Bahrain were stronger and only Thailand was even weaker. Saudi Arabia was able to qualify directly, Iran failed in the intercontinental playoffs to Ireland .

World Championship 2006

In qualifying for the second World Cup in Germany , Iraq only had to compete in the second round and was drawn into a group with Uzbekistan , Palestine and Taiwan . Behind the Uzbeks only the second place was taken, so that the third round was not reached, in which Uzbekistan also failed.

World Championship 2010

In the qualification for the first World Cup in Africa , Iraq went with high hopes after the 2007 AFC Asian Cup had won, and sat down in the first round with 7: 0 and 0: 0 against Pakistan by. With that he was qualified for the third round. In this, the Iraqis met Australia , which took part in the Asian qualification for the first time, as well as Qatar and China . Iraq played all of its home games in Dubai and ended up only third in the group.

World Championship 2014

In qualifying for the second World Cup in Brazil , Iraq only had to compete in the second round and prevailed against Yemen 2-0 and 0-0 . The third round, in which Jordan , China and Singapore were the opponents, ended as group winners, with only the first game against Jordan being lost. In the fourth round, Japan , Australia, again Jordan and Oman were the opponents. Iraq could not build on the results of the second round and was eliminated as bottom of the group.

World Championship 2018

In the qualification , the team should play against Indonesia , the Republic of China (Taiwan) , Thailand and Vietnam in the second round . Indonesia was suspended by FIFA in June 2015. Iraq qualified second in the group for the third round. In this, Australia, Japan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and again Thailand were the opponents. In the end, the Iraqis, who all played their home games in neighboring countries, finished fifth with three wins, two draws and five defeats.

player

Ranking of the Iraqi World Cup players with the most appearances

1. Seven players with three stakes

Ranking of the Iraqi World Cup players with the most goals

1. Ahmed Radhi - 1 goal

World Cup captains

• 1986: Raad Hamudi (1st and 2nd game), Khalil Mohammad Allawi (3rd game)

Players banned from World Championships

• 1986: Basil Gorgis received the red card in the game against Belgium and was suspended for the last group game against Mexico, as was Samir Shaker , who received the second yellow card .

Games

Iraq has played three World Cup games so far, all of which have been lost. Iraq met the host once. All games are the only international matches so far and thus also Iraq's biggest defeats against the three opponents. In all World Cup games only players who played for Iraqi clubs were used. In the all-time World Cup ranking, Iraq is 70th and is one of the ten teams that lost all games, but has the best goal difference of these (1: 4 goals).

All World Cup games
No.	date	Result	opponent		venue	occasion	Remarks
1	06/04/1986	0: 1	Paraguay	*	Toluca , MEX	Preliminary round
2	06/08/1986	1: 2	Belgium	*	Toluca , MEX	Preliminary round
3	06/11/1986	0: 1	Mexico	A.	Mexico City , MEX	Preliminary round

See also

• Football World - Statistics - Iraq on fifa.com

References and footnotes

1. ↑ The placements from 5th place onwards were determined by FIFA without any placement games. See: All-time FIFA World Cup Ranking 1930-2014 (PDF; 218 kB).
2. ↑ Indonesia excluded from World Cup qualification and AFC Asian Cup 2019. In: fifa.com. FIFA, June 3, 2015, accessed June 4, 2015 .