Salim Cheniouni
Iraq officially won
the honor of hosting the 25th edition of the Arabian Gulf Football Cup (Gulf
25) unanimously by the presidents of the Gulf federations and secretaries
during the General Conference of the championship held in Doha.
It will be the second
time Iraq hosts the Gulf Cup after the 1979 edition in Baghdad.
Iraq was scheduled to
host Gulf 23 but was withdrawn because of the ban on Iraqi football by the
International Federation of the game (FIFA), but after the lifting of the ban
is ready to host the tournament.
President of the Iraqi
Football Federation Abdul Khaliq Masoud expressed his great satisfaction with
the confidence placed by the presidents of the Gulf federations and secretaries
in Basra and Iraq to enjoy the honor of hosting, stressing that this is the
happiness of all Iraqis without exception.
Massoud considered the
victory of Iraq the honor of hosting a great achievement for the Iraqi people
in all provinces of Iraq.
Massoud stressed that
the withdrawal of hosting in the past was mainly caused by the ban on Iraqi
football, but now the ban has been lifted, and the transfer of games currently
in the Asian joint qualifying for the World Cup 2022 and Asian Cup 2023, it is
temporary and things will return to the right quorum and Iraq will return to
host the matches In the playoffs again.
For his part, the
Secretary-General of the Gulf Federation of the game Jassem Al-Rumaihi, that
the Iraqi file met all the conditions required for hosting and the General
Secretariat of the Union raised its approval to the presidents during the
General Conference and the Executive Office approved the decision to grant
hosting to Iraq well, hoping that Basra will organize an extraordinary
championship and graduate in the best way.
Al-Rumaihi said that
if conditions did not allow Iraq to host the tournament, God forbid, any
country has the right to submit a file to host and be an alternative to Iraq,
according to the file and conform to the criteria and conditions for hosting.