There was little doubt among the hundreds of thousands of revellers who poured defiantly on to the streets of Iraq last Sunday that in winning the Asia Cup in Jakarta, the ”lions of Mesopotamia”, as the national football team is known, had given the country its most important, and perhaps most profound, sporting achievement.
As he bounced with joy with friends outside his house in Baghdad’s violence-racked Amiriya neighbourhood, Taha Mahmoud, a 25-year-old computer programmer, said: ”In 90 minutes, 11 men on a soccer pitch thousands of miles away have made millions of Iraqis happy while 250 MPs, our government, the mullahs, imams and warlords can’t provide us with a single smile. I hope this is a turning point for our country.”
The sentiment was echoed throughout the country as the Iraqi squad’s unlikely 1-0 victory over favourites Saudi Arabia triggered scenes of jubilation, offering rare respite from bombs and sectarian killings. The crowds briefly regained Baghdad’s streets from the gunmen, dancing to patriotic songs, waving the flag and shooting into the air.
United States army helicopters wisely interrupted their regular flyÂÂÂovers of the capital until the partying had stopped.
Celebrating in Basra, Ali Haddar (45) held back the tears as he waved an Iraqi flag. ”This is how real Iraqis are and it is a letter to Iraqi political groups to unite like the Iraqi people who were united by the Lions [of Mesopotamia].”
Even the autonomy-minded Kurds joined in, honking their horns, hanging out of cars and waving the Kurdish and Iraqi flags, side by side.
”It is the greatest gift since the fall of Saddam Hussein, and shows how Iraqis from all walks of life can work together to achieve success,” said Hozam Mahmoud, a Kurdish policeman, who had abandoned his traffic duties to join noisy celebrations close to the foot of the ancient citadel in the Kurdish regional capital, Irbil.
He added: ”Football alone may not be able to heal the nation’s deep wounds, but for the moment it has induced a sense of cohesion, and we can all build on that if we try.”
One reason for the team’s popularity is that its players are drawn from all sections and all parts of Iraqi society.
On the pitch were Kurds, Sunnis, Shi’ites and Turkomans. The players had overcome kidnap threats, the murder of loved ones and disruptions to their training schedules.
Because of the violence in Iraq, the team’s Brazilian coach had to scrape around for training facilities in Syria and Jordan.
Congratulating the team after the win, Iraq’s President, Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, said they were ”a true symbol of national unity”.
In the days of Saddam, the Iraqi team knew if they underperformed they risked being humiliated or tortured by Uday, Saddam’s late and unlamented son. As head of the national football team, his motivational techniques included phoning players during half-time and threatening to cut off their legs.
The previous Sunday by contrast, the Iraqi government announced that the team would get a bonus of £5 000 each, whether they won or not.
Eager to capitalise on the team’s success, the Prime Minister, Nuri al-Maliki, said he had planned to send a Cabinet delegation to the game, but it was not possible to organise a charter flight due to technical issues related to the flight’s path.
Until the final whistle, an eerie calm descended in the centre of Iraq’s major cities as fans of all ages gathered around their televisions to watch the game.
In Baghdad and other volatile cities, such as Mosul and Kirkuk, authorities had slapped a city-wide curfew on vehicle movement, hoping to avoid a repeat of the terrible scenes after last Wednesday’s semifinal victory, when two car bombers struck revellers in Baghdad, killing 50 and wounding scores more.
The Iraqi players in the final wore black armbands to honour the dead. Political and religious leaders had also ordered Iraqis to refrain from celebratory gunfire in case of a victory, after a week in which post-match stray bullets killed at least 12.
After the game, there were no immediate reports of an attack on celebrating fans, though police said six people died when mortar rounds hit a house in Balad, about 80km north of Baghdad.
For some Iraqis the victory was made sweeter by the fact that it was over Saudi Arabia. There is a long-held rivalry and suspicion between the neighbouring countries, with many Iraqis accusing the Saudis of fomenting violence in their country. ”They send us fanatics and suicide bombers, we hit back with goals,” said student Ahmed Hussein in the northern city of Sulaymaniya. — Â