Sport in Iraq

Sports in Iraq There are a wide variety of sports played and followed in Iraq. Football is the most popular sport and hobbies in Iraq. Football is a considerable uniting factor, following years of war and unrest. Basketball, swimming, weightlifting, bodybuilding, taekwondo, boxing, kickboxing, and tennis are also popular sports and hobbies.

Soccer

Football is the most popular sport in Iraq. The Iraq national football team were the 2007 AFC Asian Cup Champions after defeating Saudi Arabia in the final, held in Jakarta, Indonesia. In 2006, Iraq reached the football final of the 2006 Asian Games in Doha, Qatar, after defeating former FIFA World Cup semi-finalists South Korea and eventually finished as runners-up, winning silver. The football tournament at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, saw Iraq finish in fourth place, with the Italy national football team claiming bronze from a single goal.

The Iraqi Football Association is the governing body of football in Iraq, controlling the Iraq national football team and the Iraq Super League (also known as Dawri Al-Nokba). It was founded in 1948, and has been a member of FIFA since 1950, and the Asian Football Confederation since 1971.

Al-Shorta (Police Club) are considered the biggest club in the history of Iraq, having won the league in two of the past four seasons and they also have an Arab Champions League title to their name which they won in 1982. Other big clubs include Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya, Al-Zawraa, Erbil SC, Duhok SC, Al Talaba and Najaf FC.

Basketball

Basketball clubs

Armenia Club
Al-cheeky fellow Club
Al Shorta (basketball) (based in Baghdad)
Peshmerga Club, a Kurdish team

Kickboxing

Iraq has a world-champion kickboxer in Riyadh Al-Azzawi.

Wrestling

Iraqi professional wrestler Adnan Al-Kaissie is known as General Adnan.

References

External links

Iraqi Football Website

Sources

Iraq articles

History

Ancient	Sumer Akkadian Empire Babylonia Assyria Neo-Assyrian Empire Neo-Babylonian Empire Achaemenid Assyria Seleucid Babylonia Parthian Babylonia Sassanid Asorestan

638–1958	Muslim conquest of Persia Abbasid Caliphate Buyid dynasty Kara Koyunlu Ak Koyunlu Safavids Ottoman Iraq (Mamluk dynasty) Mandatory Iraq Kingdom of Iraq Arab Federation

Republic	1958–68 1968–2003 2003–11 2011–present Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Iraq Region (National Command) Saddam Hussein Iran–Iraq War Invasion of Kuwait Gulf War Sanctions Iraq War U.S. invasion Iraqi insurgency U.S. troop withdrawal Insurgency (2011–2013) Civil War (2014–present)

Geography

Politics

Economy

Society

Cuisine Culture Education Health Media Music Sports

Demographics	Iraqis diaspora refugees Languages Arabic Aramaic Kurdish Persian Turkmen Minorities Armenians Assyrians Circassians Kurds Mandaeans Marsh Arabs Persians Solluba Turkmen Religion Islam Christianity Jews Mandaeism Yazidis

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Sport in Asia

Sovereign states	Afghanistan Armenia Azerbaijan Bahrain Bangladesh Bhutan Brunei Cambodia China Cyprus East Timor (Timor-Leste) Egypt Georgia India Indonesia Iran Iraq Israel Japan Jordan Kazakhstan North Korea South Korea Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Lebanon Malaysia Maldives Mongolia Myanmar Nepal Oman Pakistan Philippines Qatar Russia Saudi Arabia Singapore Sri Lanka Syria Tajikistan Thailand Turkey Turkmenistan United Arab Emirates Uzbekistan Vietnam Yemen

States with limited recognition	Abkhazia Nagorno-Karabakh Northern Cyprus Palestine South Ossetia Taiwan

Dependencies and other territories	British Indian Ocean Territory Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Hong Kong Macau

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