The Basra International Stadium was opened on October 12, 2013 with a double header involving Iraqi clubs Nadi Al-Minaa Al-Basri (Basra Port Club) and Al-Zawraa and Al-Ahed of Lebanon and Egyptian side Zamalek. The first match was held at 16:00pm local time between Al-Minaa and Al-Ahed and the second game at 18:00pm between Al-Zawraa and Zamalek. The matches, which were attended by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the Minister of Youth & Sports Jassim Mohammed Jafar along with a large number of dignitaries witnessed the presence of a large 60,000 crowd. The stadium had been expected to host the 22nd Gulf Cup in 2013 however the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) had decided to take away the 22nd Gulf Cup from Basra and transfer it to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, with the Ministry of Youth later announcing Iraq’s withdrawal from the tournament. Iraq's decision to withdraw from the Gulf Cup was rejected by a number of Iraqi political figures and MPs. Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki stated during his weekly address the decision to take the Gulf Cup 22 from Basra and move it to Jeddah was a political decision. The whole ‘sports festival’ was organised by Iraq’s Ministry of Youth. FIFA considered the establishment of the two friendly games to have been in violation of the international ban on the Iraqi stadiums and warned the Iraq FA, but the Iraqi Football Association confirmed it had nothing to do with its organisation, nor did anyone from the Iraq FA attend the opening of the stadium and they even refused to allow any of their FIFA accredited referees to officiate in the two matches. On March 19, 2014, FIFA’s disciplinary committee imposed a penalty on the Iraq Football Association against the background of the opening of the Basra Sports City despite the international ban on Iraqi football. The fine amounted to 17,000 CHF Swiss francs. FIFA had also decided to charge the Egyptian Football Federation and its Lebanese counterparts a sum of 10,000 CHF Swiss francs because the two unions had agreed to the participation of Zamalek and the Lebanese club in their matches against Al-Zawraa and Al-Minaa. FIFA not only fined their Egyptian and Lebanese FAs, but went as far as fining clubs Zamalek and Al-Ahed 20,000 CHF Swiss francs for their participation in the opening of the Basra Sports City as well as Iraqi clubs Al-Minaa and Al-Zawraa.
Al-Minaa 1–3 Al-Ahed
Naif Falah 10; Hassan Jalal 27, Hussein Dakik 34, Mahdi Atwi 81
AL-MINAA: 20 Karrar Ibrahim; 23 Mohammed Jabar Rabat, 35 Abdullah Muhsin,
26 Mohammed Abdul-Karim, 6 Omar Alaa (27 Hussein Abdul-Wahid 64’),
18 Hassan Mahmoud (12 71’), 7 Mohammed Jabar Shukan (10 Basim Ali 57’)
11 Naif Falah [c] (5 Ahmed Muhsin 80’), 8 Ali Husni (17 Haidar Sari 57’),
33 Anis Jassim, 14 Reda Laweshi (19 Hussein Ali Wahid 63’).
COACH: Jamal Ali
AL-AHED: 1 Mohammed Santina [c] (22 Wahid Fattal 46’); 2 Boubacar Diallo,
4 Hussein Al-Dour, 6 Hussein Faour (20 81’), 24 Hassan Humoud; 14 Hussein Dakik,
23 (25 71’), 8 Mohammed Abou Ateeq (11 81’), 26 Hassan Jalal (17 Yousef Salih 64’),
7 David Střihavka (27 Mahdi Fahhas 79’), 30 Nassar Nassar (18 Mahdi Atwi 53’)
COACH: Bahtiyar Can Vanlı (Turkey/Germany)
Referee: Adnan Shayah (Iraq)
Linesmen: Lafta Hamed (Iraq) & Loay Badran (Iraq)
Fourth Official: Mustaq Abdul-Sattar (Iraq)
Cautions: Ali Husni 38'.
Al-Zawraa 2-2 Zamalek
Muhaimen Saleem Malakh 11, Marwan Hussein 53; Ahmed Gaafar 70, Momen Zakaria 85
AL-ZAWRAA: 21 Ahmed Ali [c] (20 Alaa Qatar 46’), 4 Muayad Khalid,
2 Ashraf Abdul-Karim (5 Ibrahim Sabri 74’), 14 Haidar Abdul-Amir,
19 Hussein Abdullah (17 Haidar Sabah 46’), 12 Ali Khudhair (34 Hussein Shanshoul 77’),
18 Mohammed Khalid Jaffal (13 Amjad Walid 46’), 8 Samar Saeed (9 Mohammed Saad 63),
15 Muhaimen Saleem Malakh (10 Marwan Hussein 46’), 26 Ali Rahim Mahawi,
11 Rahim Oulabi (33 Namir Hamed 82)
COACH: Radhi Shanaishel
ZAMALEK: 16 Abdul-Wahed El-Sayed [c]; 20 Mahmood Fatallah, 2 Salah Soliman,
22 Hamada Tolba, 4 Ahmed Samir, 8 Hani Said (12 Ahmed Tawfiq 74’),
15 Nour El-Sayed, 24 Said Otta (33 Youssef “Obama” Ibrahim 46’), 11 Momen Zakaria,
14 Mohammed Ibrahim, 9 Ahmed Gaafar.
COACH: Helmi Toulan
Referee: Salim Amer (Iraq)
Linesmen: Mahmoud Khalaf (Iraq) & Haidar Hamed (Iraq)
Fourth Official: Ali Ahmed Shakur (Iraq)
Cautions: Ali Rahim Mahawi 90’ (+2).
Note: Ashraf Abdul-Karim had a goal ruled out for offside on 64 minutes.
An electricity blackout in the 79th minute halted the game for three minutes
Prepared and maintained by Hassanin Mubarak for the Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation
Authos: Hassanin Mubarak
(iraqifootball@yahoo.com)
Last updated: 23 Nov 2017
(C) Copyright Hassanin Mubarak and RSSSF 2017
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