So for those following this crazy saga, it seems that Iraq has been suspended from international soccer by FIFA because the Iraqi government (note: this is apparently not the same as the USA) "was disbanding the Iraqi Olympic Committee and all affiliated sports federations".

The link has more infoz, but basically if the suspension is not lifted Iraq will be forced to forfeit all their world cup qualifier games - including the game against Australia that was taking place this weekend in Brisbane at Suncorp (the game that was going to give the Football Federation Australia an extra $3 million in phatlewtz, because it's sold out).

Sounds like it's still a bit up in the air, at least according to that article, but it'll be a bit weak if we miss this game.

f***

i am pretty sure i heard on the radio that the game will go ahead as a friendly if it has to.. which is still lame.

wtf is up with middle eastern countries being totally incapable of running their s*** normally...

Drop some bombs on them, that'll make em think normally.

soccer is gay

God you wonder why you get picked in bars, soccer hooligans are all insane remember

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/05/27/2256382.htm

The Iraqi government has notified the Iraqi Football Association that it is not affected by a government decision to disband the Iraqi Olympic Committee, hoping to reverse the country's suspension from the international competition and the World Cup.

It looks like it will probably go ahead.

i bloody well hope so. i've taken time off work to go to this game, gonna be pissed because sunday is double time too.

God you wonder why you get picked in bars, soccer hooligans are all insane remember

was this directed at me?
I didn't get picked on, I stirred some c*** until he got the s***s and wanted to beat me down, at which point there was some epic lols

Picked IN

Good - as long as Sunday's game is still on...

was not happy when i saw this.. :(

hopefully we'll all hear good news thursday

wtf is up with middle eastern countries being totally incapable of running their s*** normally...

Are you retarded?

iraqis shouldn't be pissing about wasting time on some stupid sport and should instead get cracking on pumping as much of that crude as possible to take the pressure off working families.

the game that was going to give the Football Federation Australia an extra $3 million in phatlewtz, because it's sold out

sounds like they might b giving out 3mill worth of refunds...

^ better not! I'm keen for this game!

Just another article that might interest those other folk among us that have tickets to the game.

Link

I don't think it was mentioned in the article reso linked, but the reasoning for dissolving the olympic commitees from my article

The Iraqi government said it sacked its national Olympic committee and with it all sports federations because the committee had lacked a quorum to conduct its meetings and had not held elections for more than five years.

last edited by eK at 20:31:40 27/May/08

man come to england or europe and say soccer is gay, you'll have glass in your face faster then you can say "i'm an ignorant twat".

i dont think they know wat "soccer" is over there, so u'd probably get away with it.

say football is for poofs and ur in for it

Iraq Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's aide, Bassam al-Husseini, said he hoped the national team would play Australia after Baghdad sent a letter to FIFA confirming the IFA had not been sacked and was not covered by 'resolution 184' that dissolved the National Olympic Committee last week.

"The Iraqi Federation of Football is not covered by resolution 184 and it continues to engage in internal and external activities until the holding of elections,'' Husseini said.

Sepp Blatter has said the Socceroos' World Cup qualifier against Iraq will go ahead, despite FFA's reluctance to confirm the fixture.

Sources:
Link 1
Link 2

You f***s are going to go down.

HARD

THIS IS MADNESS!

NO THIS IS FOOTBALL!

lol soccer

^i agree

wtf is up with middle eastern countries being totally incapable of running their s*** normally...

this got a laugh

You f***s are going to go down.

Yes, we are going to go down on the books as winning home and away against Iraq.

I didn't know they played sport in the middle east. Ay-rabs

SO is it still on not ??!

Decision hasn't been mde yet, but the Roar coach, and the towelhead coach wanna play anyway, so I guess the game is almost guaranteed to be on ?

Should be confirmed later tonight.

CONFIRM IT NOW WHORE

Wheres a good place to watch the match in the city?

Shut your whore mouth

You can go just out of the city to Suncorp Stadium and watch it?

except its sold out

yeah but out the front of suncorp they are chucking a s***ty old tv in sandpit so all the a-rabs can watch the game in their natural environment.

one of the few games they play that don't involve explosives or swords.

except its sold out

No, it's not.

Tickets still for sale.

what the hell is the $3m bonus for then?

how do rubgy league teams make phat lewt putting 10k people into homebush in sydney?

$3m in tickets sold already?

Is it being broadcast as well? Maybe FFA would miss out on the fees for that too.

how do rubgy league teams make phat lewt putting 10k people into homebush in sydney?

The owners of the stadium pay them to play at Homebush (instead of the traditional home grounds) regardless of crowd numbers. Saying that, because of the pokie-machine tax increase a lot of Sydney clubs are struggling to survive... they are hardly earning phat-lewts.

Seems to be the common theme in AUS sport at the moment, with the Bullets, Sydney Kings, and Melbourne AFL clubs all on death beds.

last edited by ctd at 15:39:19 29/May/08

how do rubgy league teams make phat lewt putting 10k people into homebush in sydney?

television my friend, television.

woot, games goin ahead

Just fyi I think the game is now officially sold out.

I'm excited :D

Great atmosphere, great game.

We all owe Schwarzer a beer I reckon.

aussie aussie aussie
oi oi oi

soccer is still gay, I don't care if someone is going to beat my head in for saying so in some other country, if it makes me an ignorant c*** for not liking ONE particular sport then so be it, I'm ignorant
I can appreciate the skill, its just boring as f***.

Then I suggest you dont go to Soccer games or click on internet pages clearly dedicated to something you so deeply loathe.

s***house team performance by Australia. Totally saved by shwazer and kewell's individual brilliance. Solid effort from Emerton.

the game was particularly exciting due to the many chances that iraq had to score, special thanks to schwarzer and the cross bar.

ffs could we please get rid of wilkishire!!! gus hiddink plucked him outta 4th grade soccer and put him on the field cos he was mates with him. Hiddinks gone, so can we please get rid of this POS gerbil look-a-like.

Get lockyer in there and its 5 nil easy and australia to be favourites for the next world cup

I'm still entitled to my opinion, this is the internets after all

soccer is gay

Who was the negro that came on for Kewell at like 75 mins, what a f***ing failure he is, he can't even run

Spotted: Trog at the train station going there.

We also played well, special mention to the Iraqi supporters who ran onto the field. Even the Iraqi team didn't like it.

s***house team performance by Australia. Totally saved by shwazer and kewell's individual brilliance. Solid effort from Emerton.

Agree, pretty average all round. Kewell's header was great but aside from that he didn't really stand out too much, missing really what should have been a sitter right in front of the goal from a PERFECT cross.

Australia was lucky to win and Iraq really unlucky not to pull at least a draw. Overall was a great game to watch; tense as the whole way through

pretty good match. We were sitting in the 5th row in the aus supporter end, so had a great view of some of the scoring chances from both teams. I think Djite (black guy) did ok.. made some good runs and delivered a smashing cross at one point near the end. Iraq had a lot of good chances.. Will be interesting to see the next leg

i was in row 9 right behind the goals. got smashed in the face twice by the beach balls. oh well, good result average game. kewell brilliant. iraq captain no.10 was the best player, our defence really misses moore and neill. but i was drunk and picked up so wooooooo.

can really tell jade north is from the a-league. some stupid plays but still did ok. aussie bruce was ok didnt really get the ball. there was no attacking mids when he came on.

last edited by WreckTim at 11:39:54 02/Jun/08

We also played well, special mention to the Iraqi supporters who ran onto the field. Even the Iraqi team didn't like it.

How bad was the security?! That 2nd guy was on the pitch for ages and looked lost, obviously expecting to have someone grab him and take him off way earlier than what he was.

Some atrocious defending but I guess that is part of what made it an exciting game to watch. We really missed Cahill I think (bresciano is overrated as an attacking mid imo) and Grella/Culina had some terrible distribution. Wish Neill's wife would drop her sprog already :)

How bad was the security?! That 2nd guy was on the pitch for ages and looked lost, obviously expecting to have someone grab him and take him off way earlier than what he was.

f*** yeh, that was crazy. I cannot believe how long it took for anyone to come out after these guys. Maybe they were worried they were strapped with C4 or something. Pretty f***ing weak though.

i was in row 9 right behind the goals. got smashed in the face twice by the beach balls.

LOL i saw that happen both times. So that was you aye :P The funniest was the 2nd time when the old guy in the next bank of seats picked it up and tried to whack it back up to our area.. Ended up doing a tennis smash straight to your face :P

yep that was me. right on the nose. lucky i didnt spill my beer