Iraq football hit hard by age fraud scandals

Khalil Jalil -

With players banned from travel, executives sacked and a national squad that just withdrew from the Asian Games, Iraqi football is paying the price for a string of age fraud scandals.

Nearly five months ago, Fifa breathed life back into Iraqi football by lifting a three-decade ban on the country’s hosting of international matches.

But a series of cases of alleged age fraud has put Iraq’s international football reputation back into jeopardy, with players and coaches warning that authorities have long turned a blind eye to cheating if it will bring home a win.

Karim Saddam, one of the country’s football legends, said the Iraqi Football Association (IFA) “tries by any means, by any cost to have teams achieve victories and to take credit for it”.

To do so, he said, “it will turn a blind eye to teams that have players with forged IDs”.

The first tremor hit on July 30, when players on Iraq’s under-16 football squad were banned from taking off for a regional tournament in Jordan.

Baghdad airport officials found nine members of the team had falsified ages on their passports.

IFA quickly dismissed the team’s officials, whose players said had instructed them to shave to look younger.

It promised to take action against “players who falsified their age”.

For weeks, anti-fraud activists had posted evidence online that some of the players had voted in Iraq’s May elections, proving they were over 18.

To avoid a $30,000 non-participation fine from the tournament, Iraq’s under-14 team was sent to play in their stead.

On August 1, Iraq’s under-23 squad dropped out of the Asian Games — set to begin later this month — after activists again took to social media alleging 17 of the team’s 23 players had lied about their age. The team faces a possible $100,000 fine and a potential ban from the next edition in 2022.

Just days later, authorities dissolved the country’s under-19 team, expected in Indonesia this fall for the AFC Championship finals.

Officials said the squad would be regrouped once player IDs were thoroughly screened.

Sports authorities in Iraq have tried to contain the crisis by announcing new checks and insisting they had been caught off guard by the scale of the problem. — AFP