Categories: Sports

Saudi Offers To Help Finance New Iraq Football Stadium

Saudi Arabia has offered to help in the construction of  a new football stadium in Iraq, as FIFA prepares to decide whether to lift its ban on Iraq hosting competitive international matches.

The offer came in a telephone call between King Salman and Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Monday evening, the prime minister’s office said.

There was no details about the cost of the stadium or where it might be located.

It follows an international friendly between the two countries in Iraq’s third city Basra on February 28, their first on Iraqi soil in 40 years.

The king described the game, which Iraq won 4-1 in front of a capacity 60,000 crowd, as a “success”, Abadi’s office said.

It was watched by Asian Football Confederation head Salman bin Ibrahim Al-Khalifa who said “the time has come” to end the three-decade ban on Iraq hosting competitive international matches.

FIFA is due to decide on March 16.

The country has not played full internationals on home turf since its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

The ban, covering all but domestic matches, stayed in place after the US-led invasion of 2003 toppled dictator Saddam Hussein.

It was briefly lifted in 2012, but a power outage during an Iraq-Jordan match in the Iraqi Kurdish capital Arbil led FIFA to promptly reinstate it.

Recent Posts

Aig-Imoukhuede Returns As Access Holdings Non-Executive Chairman

Following the death of its immediate-past Group Chief Executive Officer, Herbert Wigwe, Access Holdings Plc…

8 hours ago

There Is Now Improved Security In FCT – Wike

The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Barrister Ezenwo Nyesom Wike, has said there…

12 hours ago

17-Year-Old Commits Suicide Over Theft Allegations

A 17-year-old boy, Ojibe Chibueze, has committed suicide in Lagos. The late Chibueze was allegedly…

12 hours ago

Three Remanded For Sodomising 11 Boys

Three men were on Wednesday, remanded by a Kano Chief Magistrates’ Court for allegedly sodomising…

12 hours ago

Pensioners Tasks FG On Pension Provision Review, Demand Immediate Payment Of Wage Award

The Federal Civil Service Pensioners Branch, FCSPB, has called on the federal government to revisit…

12 hours ago

11 Persons Arrested For Eating During Ramadan

The Kano State Hisbah Board said it has arrested 11 people who violated the Ramadan…

13 hours ago

This website uses cookies.