The hope of rebirth from a traumatic background: Iraq's reviving test for its dream to come

Iraq is a very passionate nation. Home to some of the oldest and most important civilisations in the world, the Mesopotamian basin was the land where various ancient empires, from Persia, Akkadia, Assyria, Greece and Rome. The Arabs brought Islam and the Arabic language, the Ottomans reinforced the Islamic rule, but none of them outclasses the other, and Iraq became a multicultural state where the Arabic language is the state language.

With such a proud past, Iraq should have striven as an Asian football superpower, but they have underachieved so far. There is something the Iraqis lack, well, a question not easy to answer.

Iraq is one of the World Cup participants from Asia, but its debut happened 35 years ago. A long, long drought. This was the 1986 FIFA World Cup. Despite the war with Iran at the time, being banned from hosting fixtures at home, Iraq was able to field a competitive national team and beat the UAE and Syria to qualify for their only World Cup to date. In that edition in Mexico, Iraq was drawn with the hosts, Belgium and Paraguay. Yet, the Iraqi team travelled to Mexico with completely different jerseys, blue and yellow, the favourite colours of Saddam Hussein's son, the sadistic Uday. Uday established a football club, Al-Rasheed, using his favourite colours and ensuring its domination in the Iraqi league through intimidation and death threats, forcing the other clubs to give their best players for Uday. Sensing this opportunity, Uday coerced the Iraqi Football Association to revamp jerseys' colours, moving away from traditional all-white home and all-green away, to these blue and yellow ones. Iraq went on losing all games, the first one against Paraguay was extremely painful when Iraq had a clear chance to equalise but the whistle blown after Ahmed Radhi headed the ball into the net - till this day, Paraguay remains deeply hated by Iraqi fans.

But the drama of its only successful qualification for Mexico in 1986 is the story of Iraqi football itself: traumas, blunders, glories, struggles, dramas and difficulties.

Iraq first began to assemble a national football team in 1923, when the country was under British colonial administration. Britain only gave Iraq partial independence in 1932, and football did not take place again until 1948, when a proper football federation, the Iraqi FA, was founded. It soon demonstrated the feat and became a frequent participant in regional tournaments, mostly surrounding other Arab teams. From the 1970s, Iraq became more active in Asian football instead of just regional tournaments - they played their first Asian Cup in 1972, winning fourth place four years later at the same tournament. Iraq took part in their first World Cup qualifiers for West Germany 1974 but fell short to Australia, the eventual winner.

It did not take long. The 1980s was arguably the finest era in Iraqi football history. During that time, Iraq developed a dream team, composed of star strikers Ahmed Radhi and Hussein Saeed, the best forward duo in Iraqi history; energetic midfielders like Basil Gorgis, Haris Mohammed and Natiq Hashim; capable defenders like Basim Qasim and Nadhim Shaker; alongside the veteran custodian, Raad Hammoudi. Together, they booked a place at the 1980 Summer Olympics with an impressive performance, the same players would go on to qualify for two other consecutive Summer Olympics until being designed only for the under-23 since 1992. These guys also contributed to Iraq's three Gulf Cup trophies and two pan-Arab Games gold medals. But nothing compared to their glorious appearance at the 1986 FIFA World Cup, as I've told before.

Sadly, this golden era coincided with the brutal reign of dictator Saddam Hussein and his sons. Saddam was a mad lover of football, but he let it at the hand of his sadistic son Uday. Using his father's privilege, he turned football into the most dangerous job in Iraq. His actions came after witnessing Iraq getting kicked out early in Mexico, and fans booing his club Al-Rasheed - it was eventually disbanded in 1990 due to failure to attract supports. He began to develop systematic punishments for his players under his chains (Uday was the President of the Olympic and Football Associations).

Accounts about Uday's brutality were plenty among Iraqi exiles, especially after the war with Iran and the Gulf War (which was responsible for the birth of Iraqi-Saudi rivalry). When Iraq had to beat North Korea to keep its slim hope alive for the 1994 FIFA World Cup, it was 1-0 in the first half. Suddenly, Uday threatened the players he would feed their bodies' legs for ravenous dogs. The Iraqi players were so frightened that they lost their tempo and, ultimately from 2-0 losing 2-3. Subsequent matches saw Iraq beat Iran 2-1, but not enough to progress. At least, they carried Japan to the same hell, holding Japan in a 2-2 draw that denied Japan's first World Cup appearance. In the end, Uday forced the players to play with a concrete ball at his disposal, displeasure for the national team's failure to qualify for the U.S. Iraq then tried to qualify for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, but lost two important encounters to Kazakhstan and was drowned from the first phase. Subsequently, the punishment level increased, including head shaving, medieval beatings for anyone who don't perform at the expectations.

One player that endured these tortures was Habib Jafar, the captain of Iraq during this dark age. He suffered beatings, a lot, with lengths of electric cable while performing press-ups, being made repeatedly to climb a 20-metre ladder and jump into a vat of raw sewage, and to trap mosquitos on pain of more beatings. Uday was merciless, using every lever to guarantee what he wanted.

Uday was not even liked by his father, but due to protecting the image, Saddam had ordered to stop talking about Uday's brutality. FIFA investigators were unable to confirm these shreds of evidence. Undergrounds of both the Olympic and Football HQ in Baghdad lied torture chambers; back in 2000, shortly after being eliminated by Japan in the Asian Cup, Uday blamed three players for letting the Japanese winning this match, torturing them in the same dungeon. Not just that, after Uday was killed in 2003, the American troops discovered Uday had also installed a bed frame connecting with electricity and a sarcophagus.

The national team finally escaped the hand of a monster. Uday Hussein was gone, so was Qusay and later Saddam. But the team was so demoralised. Bernd Stange, the former East German Stasi spy and a full-time football coach after German reunification, nurtured a group of young talents that freed from Saddam's sons, but he left before he could take them for the 2004 Olympics in Athens, citing widespread violence. Still, this team shone by finishing fourth in Greece, forming the basis of the future Iraqi generation that deemed to be the greatest after the 1980s.

One player who came out from this darkness was Younis Mahmoud, the Iraqi Turkmen footballer. Guiding Iraq to a fourth-place finish in Athens, he was no doubt, the figurehead of Iraq in the eventual 2007 AFC Asian Cup campaign. Still, Iraq struggled with the new situation, as the Americans and allies were unable to control, by 2007, more than hundreds had been killed in Iraq every day. Its perpetration was in disarray - coachless and traumatised, many players gathered in Jordan, each had their stories to tell, mostly bad news. Two months later, a Muslim Brazilian coach, Jorvan Vieira, entered the lion dens. Vieira was uncertain how to bring these players back on track, but he had managed to convince them that every Iraqi expecting them to head high. Indeed, Vieira was not a so talented coach, but he realised his players had a common dream: to fight and to win. He captured the point. But Vieira would never think that he would register a famous chapter in the history of Iraq. Under Vieira, Iraq claimed the country's first, and only, Asian Cup trophy, including famous victories over Australia, South Korea and Saudi Arabia en route. The Final win against Saudi Arabia was emotional as Iraq almost pulled out of the tournament before a grieving mother pleaded the players to play and wow would only bury her son, who was killed following terrorist attacks on Iraqi fans celebrating Iraq's win over South Korea, if Iraq came home as Asian champions. Younis Mahmoud fulfilled the promise.

Well, has Iraq improved following their emotional run? Yes, it is. Iraq stays one of the most violent countries in the world, but it is better than before.

However, Iraq still lacks something to materialise the chance. Despite winning the 2007 Asian Cup, Iraq has not staged a successful World Cup comeback. In the 2010 qualifiers, Iraq failed to progress from the second phase, behind Australia and Qatar. Iraq did slightly better in the 2014 and 2018 qualifiers but again didn't take the opportunities well - Iraq was frequently defeated by Japan and Australia. Especially the latter.

Now, it is the first time Iraq would not have to face Australia in the World Cup qualification, the Aussies post-2007 Asian Cup has only delivered sadness for Iraq; definitely, Iraq was glad they won't face Australia again. Rather, they would face Iran, alongside South Korea, the UAE, Lebanon and Syria. While Iraq is a Pot 4 team, Iraq is still capable to do something. Well, why not take a try?

Iran is the strongest but not the best - Iran is still highly infectious but too prone to both inside and outside problems. Iraq has managed to beat Iran once, and not surprising that Iraq has the chance to do this again, although due to the COVID-19 pandemic, fans would have to cheer them away.

South Korea is far more difficult and Iraq's results are mostly negative. Though South Korea would have to struggle against Iran, it is hard to see if the Koreans could lose to Iraq. Still, Iraq may look on the 2007 inspiration in order to gather at least a point from the Koreans. Iraq will need an equivalent player to block Son Heung-min, the most dangerous player of South Korea, hence it will be cringy.

The UAE is familiar to Iraq, hence there is no certain advantage or disadvantage. Matches between them will be the battle that would feature all the best of these teams. Whilst the UAE relies heavily on Ali Mabkhout, as well as playmaker Omar Abdulrahman and Ahmed Khalil; Iraq has plenty of options to handle the UAE. At least, Iraq will be determined to gain six points, though the Emiratis are no easy.

Syria, the western neighbour of Iraq, may offer tough resistance, but it is doubtful that Syria can ever inflict major pain on Iraq. Syria only relies on some names like Mahmoud Al-Mawas, Mardik Mardikian, Omar Al Somah and Omar Kharbin, not an issue if Iraq can circle and isolate them - it all in the hands of Iraq.

Lebanon has to be the easiest opponent for Iraq - the two have met more than ten times, but Iraq never loses to Lebanon. Six points from the Lebanese aren't that hard, to think how Lebanon only qualified by the blessing of Saudi Arabia.

It's remarkable that Iraq has been rising again as a major Asian dark sheep despite turmoils and violence. Many Iraqis also want to take Peru as an inspiration as well - Peruvian resilience allowed the country to qualify for Russia 2018, 36 years after its appearance in Spain, which caused joys and celebration in the Andean nation. If Iraq qualifies for Qatar, they'll also mark this tournament their second, but importantly, the first after 36 years. Enough for people to praise a country that has endured so much bad lucks.

Of course, from dreamland to reality is a long distance. It'll be hard to answer, but all hopes from Iraqis are pushing to these players, composing Mohanad Ali, Alaa Abdul-Zahra, Mohammed Dawood, Saad Natiq, Safaa Hadi, Aymen Hussein, Ali Adnan, Alaa Mhawi, Jalal Hassan, and more - the best since the 2000s. There is a sense that Iraq can do it, but they need to combine all these ingredients into one.