The Iraqi Football Federation has called on both the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) to take a series of actions before the upcoming Jordan-Iraq match. This follows incidents during the recent Iraq vs. Palestine match, which took place in Amman as part of the eighth round of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers for Asia.
اضافة اعلان
Here is the full text of the statement:
"The Iraqi Football Federation has submitted an official complaint to both the AFC and FIFA regarding the events that occurred during the Iraq vs. Palestine match in the Jordanian capital, Amman (the supposed home ground for Palestine), on March 25, 2025, as part of the eighth round of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers for Asia. The same offensive chants were also heard during the earlier match between Jordan and Palestine on March 20, 2025, at the same stadium. These chants, documented with both audio and video, included hostile, racist, and politically offensive language, with direct support from the crowd present in the stands during the Iraq vs. Palestine match. Stadium officials opened the gates for other fans to enter after the match had started, which led to political and racist chants, as well as threats directed at the Iraqi team and their supporters.
The complaint made by the Iraqi Football Federation emphasizes its formal protest against these repeated threats during the match, especially the chants that occurred at the 45+1 minute mark of the first half. These actions created an antagonistic atmosphere on the field and negatively impacted the spirit of fair play and mutual respect between players and the crowd. We will provide videos to further demonstrate the violations that took place.
Such actions are in direct contradiction with the regulations of both the AFC and FIFA, which prohibit the use of sports as a platform for spreading hate, discrimination, violence, or any form of abuse, as previously highlighted by the Iraqi Federation in its letter.
Based on the above, we demand that both the AFC and FIFA take necessary actions to investigate the insults, hostile, racist, and political chants made by the fans present, including direct threats to the Iraqi audience. The chants also included praise for individuals convicted of genocide, which is in clear violation of the regulations of both FIFA and the AFC, which prohibit the use of sport to spread hate and discrimination. We ask for appropriate sanctions to be imposed and for the Iraq-Jordan match, scheduled in Amman for June 10, 2025, as part of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers, to be moved to a neutral venue or played behind closed doors to protect the Iraqi team, in line with the regulations in place to ensure such behavior is not repeated and to protect the integrity of football.
We would also like to reiterate that the Iraqi Football Federation had previously expressed concerns about such events in the Jordan-Palestine match in the World Cup qualifiers. We submitted a complaint in February, where we expressed our previous concerns and requested the match to be held at a neutral venue based on initial information we had. The unfortunate events that occurred during the match confirmed our previous concerns."
