The Iraq Football Association ( IFA ) ( Arabic : الاتحاد العراقي لكرة القدم ) is the governing body of football in Iraq , controlling the Iraqi national team and the Iraqi football league system . The Iraqi Football Association was founded in 1948 and has been a member of FIFA since 1950, the Asian Football Confederation since 1970, and the Sub-confederation regional body West Asian Football Federation since 2001. Iraq is also part of the Union of Arab Football Associations (founded in 1974) and the Arab Gulf Cup Football Federation (founded in 2016). The Iraqi team is commonly known as Usood Al-Rafidain ( Arabic : أسود الرافدين ), which literally means Lions of Mesopotamia .
8-645: The 1973–74 Iraqi National First Division was a football tournament organised by the Iraq Football Association (IFA) in the 1973–74 season, which was formed as the first top-tier national league in Iraq to replace the Iraq Central FA Premier League and the leagues in other provinces such as Basra , Kirkuk and Mosul. The tournament began on 11 October 1973. Matches that ended in a draw were settled via penalty shootout (with no extra time), with
16-684: The Sheikh Omar district in Baghdad . The IFA was an association of 14 teams from all over Iraq, they included the Royal Olympic Club (‘Nadi Al-Malikiya Al-Olympiya’), Royal Guards (‘Haris Al-Maliki’), Royal Air Force (‘Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya Al-Malikiya’), Police Schools (‘Madaris Al-Shurta’), Kuliya Al-Askariya (‘Military College’), Dar Al-Mualameen Alaliya (‘Highest Teacher's House’), Casual's Club, Al-Marouf Al-Tarbiya (‘Physical Education’), Kuliya Al-Hakok (‘College of Law’), Quwa Al-Siyara (‘Armoured Cars’) from
24-535: The capital Baghdad and four other teams Nadi Al-Minaa Al-Basri (Basra Port Club), Sharakat Al-Naft Al-Basra (Basra Petroleum Company) from Basra and branches in the provinces of Mosul and Kirkuk . The Iraqi youth national teams have been ejected from tournaments for fielding over-age players. In 1989, Iraq was banned for using over-age players in the U-20 World Championships in Saudi Arabia. That ban
32-512: The eight teams from the 1972–73 Iraq Central FA First Division , 14 teams were split into three groups with the top two in each group qualifying for the final league competition. The qualifying matches were played from 24–31 August 1973 in the cities of Erbil , Babil and Basra . The six teams that qualified were Al-Minaa , Al-Samawa , Babil , Shortat Erbil, Shortat Sulaymaniya and Al-Rafidain . Iraq Football Association The Iraq Football Association (Ittihad Al-Iraqi Le-Korat Al-Kadem)
40-558: The winner of the shootout earning one point. Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya won the league title with a total of 23 points, and they also won the regional Iraq FA Baghdad Cup knockout tournament in the same season, led by coach Abdelilah Mohammed Hassan . From the 1974–75 season, the competition was replaced by the Iraqi National Clubs League which was only open to clubs and not institute-representative teams. To decide which six teams from other provinces would participate alongside
48-553: Was extended when Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990. The IFA organises several national competitions, including: As of 1 June 2024, the members of the Iraq Football Association leadership team are: Other members: Govand Abdul-Khaliq, Raheem Lafta, Ahmed O. Zamil Al-Mousawi, Firas Nori Bahr Al-Uloom, Mohammed Nasser Shakroun, Ghalib Abbas Al-Zamili, Yahya Zghair, Khalaf Jalal, Ghanim Oraibi, Rasha Talib The following
56-666: Was formed on October 8, 1948, and was the third sports union to be founded in Iraq after the Track and Field Athletics and the Basketball Federations. The two unions took part at the 1948 Olympic Games in London, held from July 29 to August 14, however the IFA had not been founded, so no football team took part in the Olympics. It was during the Olympics that the idea of a football association in Iraq
64-561: Was put forward. During the 1948 London Olympic Games, Iraq's basketball team lost every game by an average of 104 points per game. They scored an average of 23.5 points per game. The team included Iraq's first ever-national football captain Wadud Khalil and another member of Iraq's first ever-national squad in 1951, the outside right Salih Faraj . The first Iraqi FA administration was headed by President Obaid Abdullah Al-Mudhayfi and Saadi Jassim as general secretary, with its headquarters in
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