Iraq soccer coach Bernd Stange is trying to get international support for his scattered national team while also trying to locate some of his missing players.
”It has been an emotional time for us all and for the moment all we want is the help we can receive from anyone in any part of the world,” the German said Monday.
Many of Stange’s players were soldiers in former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s army, and the coach wants them back to help prepare for the two-leg 2004 Olympic qualifier against Vietnam. The Asian Football Confederation (AFC), however, has already ruled that Vietnam will be awarded the match.
”I can understand the decision taken by the AFC in declaring Vietnam as the winner against us without the match being played, but I think we still have a chance of convincing the AFC in trying to have the qualifiers played in June this year,” he said.
”I will need at least two weeks to get the players together for some training. I can imagine the state of my players at the moment without adequate food and water,” he added.
The former Oman coach signed a four-year contract with the Iraqi Football Association last year, but was asked to leave Baghdad by the German Embassy in February before the US invasion of Iraq.
”It was like running away from my team. It is something similar to an architect abandoning his construction site and I felt a deep hollow within,” Stange said.
Stange has succeeded in contacting a few team officials, including Hussain Saeed, Ra’ad Hammoudi and Amu Baba in the Iraqi capital. He is also hoping to organize an exhibition match between a Unicef All Stars side and possibly a top European club in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) later this year.
Former Fifa world Player of the Year George Weah, who now plays for Al Jazira in Abu Dhabi, Manchester United’s David Beckham and Real Madrid stars Zinedine Zidane and Luis Figo are among the players being invited to the match, according to local organisers.
The UAE Red Crescent has already offered to help in organising the match, to be called ”Football for Peace.”
”I would rather have 50 000 people attending a soccer match than see an equal number protest on the streets of Baghdad asking for the withdrawal of allied forces from Iraq,” Stange said. – Sapa