Sport often gets described as a great force for good, a means to thaw frozen diplomatic relations, or provide pause for thought in the fiercest battlegrounds. Occasionally, it really is a noble, lasting bridge-builder. Sometimes, it is just a welcome, uplifting distraction in troubled times.
In Iraq, football has been asked to serve all sorts of purposes. Among the most notorious stories that emerged during the era of Saddam Hussein’s government were those concerning his son, Uday, and his interest in the country’s most popular sport.
As head of the Olympic body in Iraq and overseer of the national football team for a period, he would, as witnesses who later left the country reported, organise brutal physical punishments for players deemed guilty of underachievement against opposing sides.
Post-Saddam, Iraqi football has had to overcome other problems.
At the Athens Olympics, the remarkable progress of the men’s team to the semi-finals, with their country in the grip of war, took place against the backdrop of propagandising from the United States, which led the 2003 invasion of the country.
Individuals in that Iraqi team made plain their distaste at being pointed out in American television election campaigns as emblems of the freedom the invasion had supposedly brought. The Iraqi footballers, obliged to train abroad, felt liberated from very little.
Yet they played superbly, and finished just short of a medal.
In doing so, they provided a template to what has been a scarcely credible series of Iraqi football successes since. There was the 2007 triumph for the senior Iraq team at the Asian Cup.
There was the narrow loss for the Under 19s, in the AFC tournament last year. Then, in July, a U20 World Cup in Turkey in which, after helping knock out England in the first phase, Iraq outlasted Spain and Portugal in the competition to go within a lost penalty shoot-out, against Uruguay, of making the final.
All this, while playing fields have been directly affected by unrest.
In February, 18 people, most of them teenagers, were killed by the bombing of a football pitch in Shuala, Baghdad. During the U20 World Cup, several clubs suspended their domestic fixtures after the death of a respected local coach, Mohammed Abbas Al Jabouri, during a raid by anti-terrorist police on the Karbala club.
Footballers cannot, however strong their focus, exist entirely detached from such circumstances.
The players on the U17 squad have spent the majority of their lives in a country effectively at war. They are also the first Iraqis ever to make the finals of the U17 World Cup.
But they are not short of inspiring pathfinders to try to emulate, starting from the Olympians of Athens, the Asian champions of six years ago, and the formidable U20 side in Turkey.
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Various Artists
Habibi Funk: An Eclectic Selection Of Music From The Arab World (Habibi Funk)
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The major Hashd factions linked to Iran:
Badr Organisation: Seen as the most militarily capable faction in the Hashd. Iraqi Shiite exiles opposed to Saddam Hussein set up the group in Tehran in the early 1980s as the Badr Corps under the supervision of the Iran Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). The militia exalts Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei but intermittently cooperated with the US military.
Saraya Al Salam (Peace Brigade): Comprised of former members of the officially defunct Mahdi Army, a militia that was commanded by Iraqi cleric Moqtada Al Sadr and fought US and Iraqi government and other forces between 2004 and 2008. As part of a political overhaul aimed as casting Mr Al Sadr as a more nationalist and less sectarian figure, the cleric formed Saraya Al Salam in 2014. The group’s relations with Iran has been volatile.
Kataeb Hezbollah: The group, which is fighting on behalf of the Bashar Al Assad government in Syria, traces its origins to attacks on US forces in Iraq in 2004 and adopts a tough stance against Washington, calling the United States “the enemy of humanity”.
Asaeb Ahl Al Haq: An offshoot of the Mahdi Army active in Syria. Asaeb Ahl Al Haq’s leader Qais al Khazali was a student of Mr Al Moqtada’s late father Mohammed Sadeq Al Sadr, a prominent Shiite cleric who was killed during Saddam Hussein’s rule.
Harakat Hezbollah Al Nujaba: Formed in 2013 to fight alongside Mr Al Assad’s loyalists in Syria before joining the Hashd. The group is seen as among the most ideological and sectarian-driven Hashd militias in Syria and is the major recruiter of foreign fighters to Syria.
Saraya Al Khorasani: The ICRG formed Saraya Al Khorasani in the mid-1990s and the group is seen as the most ideologically attached to Iran among Tehran’s satellites in Iraq.
(Source: The Wilson Centre, the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation)
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THE DETAILS
Kaala
Dir: Pa. Ranjith
Starring: Rajinikanth, Huma Qureshi, Easwari Rao, Nana Patekar
Rating: 1.5/5
Joker: Folie a Deux
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Brendan Gleeson
Director: Todd Phillips
Rating: 2/5
EXPATS
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Director: Siddharth Anand
Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Tiger Shroff, Ashutosh Rana, Vaani Kapoor
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Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Tips for newlyweds to better manage finances
All couples are unique and have to create a financial blueprint that is most suitable for their relationship, says Vijay Valecha, chief investment officer at Century Financial. He offers his top five tips for couples to better manage their finances.
Discuss your assets and debts: When married, it’s important to understand each other’s personal financial situation. It’s necessary to know upfront what each party brings to the table, as debts and assets affect spending habits and joint loan qualifications. Discussing all aspects of their finances as a couple prevents anyone from being blindsided later.
Decide on the financial/saving goals: Spouses should independently list their top goals and share their lists with one another to shape a joint plan. Writing down clear goals will help them determine how much to save each month, how much to put aside for short-term goals, and how they will reach their long-term financial goals.
Set a budget: A budget can keep the couple be mindful of their income and expenses. With a monthly budget, couples will know exactly how much they can spend in a category each month, how much they have to work with and what spending areas need to be evaluated.
Decide who manages what: When it comes to handling finances, it’s a good idea to decide who manages what. For example, one person might take on the day-to-day bills, while the other tackles long-term investments and retirement plans.
Money date nights: Talking about money should be a healthy, ongoing conversation and couples should not wait for something to go wrong. They should set time aside every month to talk about future financial decisions and see the progress they’ve made together towards accomplishing their goals.
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