Iraq Star Can’t Play in England. Iraq Blames America.

By: Laurie | January 27th, 2008

Iraqi soccer star Nashat Akram was this close to realizing his dream of playing in Europe. But it looks like it’s not going to happen.

England denied the twenty-four-year-old midfielder’s request for a work permit this week, so he won’t be playing at Man City as planned. The reason? Iraq’s standing in the soccer world isn’t high enough, despite the fact that they won the Asian Cup soccer championship this summer.

Akram’s would-be employer, Manchester City Football Club, said the government’s rejection of the appeal was based on a technicality. The Iraqi national team has not recently played against any of the world’s top 20 teams and its two-year average rank is 71. To meet the requirements of the visa, the team needs to be ranked in the top 70.

“I’m sure people aren’t happy [in Iraq], but people aren’t happy at Manchester City either,” club spokesman Paul Tyrrell said. “We genuinely don’t understand the decision. We thought the immigration authorities would take into consideration that Iraq, because of the domestic problems, would have difficulty playing against any of the top 20 countries.”

Akram is understandably upset by the denial.

“It was my big dream to become the first Iraqi player to play in the English Premier League,” the 21-year-old told Reuters by telephone from Dubai. “I have the ambition to show the skills of Iraqi players in the strongest league in the world. I will prove that Iraqi players deserve to play in any league in the world,” he said. …

Akram said his main motivation now was to help Iraq qualify for the 2010 World Cup. Iraq play China in a World Cup qualifier next month. “It’s my duty and it’s a debt I owe to the Iraqi soccer team and to my country,” he said.

Who’s to blame? According to a lot of Iraqis, it’s the Americans.

The only way to move up in the rankings is to play more, but because of the war, it has been impossible for Iraq to play any home matches.

“Thanks to the Americans, we can’t do this,” said Ahmed Abbas, general secretary of the Iraqi Football Assn. Because of the country’s security problems, he said, “we couldn’t have games in Iraq.”

“Even abroad, we can’t have games.”

Iraqi authorities have again appealed to England to reconsider the decision. Perhaps the US should pull in some diplomatic chits to make it happen, because this is not a good thing for international relations.

To see some of Akram’s skills, check out this video. I can see why City wants him.

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Category: Asia, Europe

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Laurie

Actually, I think we can have a pretty good idea what soccer would be like if Saddam were still in power. Not that I don't sympathhize with what the team is currently going through, but...

http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/...
daryl

There are always appeals too. So to take ben's example, if the next Maradona emerged and his national team was Montseratt (currently FIFA's lowest ranked team ) then his initial appeal would almost definitely be rejected because Montseratt are outside the top 70 ranked teams (and even outside the top 200.)

But then a club can make a special appeal to argue that the player is an exception and hopefully win the appeal. Unfortunately, it seems that the above is a rejection of Akram's appeal.
Laurie

Ben, it has to do with England's bizarre immigration rules. Apparently in order for a player to play in England, he has to be able to offer something an English player can't, i.e. he can't be mediocre, because plenty of English players fit that bill. One of the ways they determine this is by the rankings of the NTs.

bluemeanies, I agree about the security situation. What I meant about the US getting involved was that they could pull in some chits to get the work permit approved. Immigration laws are nebulous and flexible -- they only want you to think they're set in stone. A little diplomacy could help grease the skids.
Harvester of Comments

What does the Iraqi national team's ranking have to do with an individual Iraqi player signing for an EPL club? That's just bizarre. What if the next Maradona emerges from [insert perennial soccer minnow here], but he can't sign for an EPL club because his national team sucks?
bluemeanies

I don't think that the US would stop Iraq from playing friendlies if they declared the security situation clear. If safe transport could be assured (probably) they would not stop Iraq from playing in any third country that wanted to have a friendly. They can't play at home because it is not considered safe, they can probably arrange the logistical hurdle of playing away if someone is willing to play them, but who in the top 20 would consider Iraq a country they want to play due to their ability to attract domestic protests, the logistical side which is probably harder than average and the fact that in most top 20 nations they are not all that great a draw? Heck, I don't think the US is a consistant top 20 nation so the state department leaning on the USSF to make it happen wouldn't even work. In short the Home Office are idiots on this one.