Iraq will play its upcoming World Cup qualifiers and matches for next year's Olympics in Qatar, the Iraqi Football Association (IFA) said on Saturday in an effort to avoid a ban imposed by the world's football governing body FIFA. FIFA told Iraq last week it would have to play its qualifiers outside of Iraq because of fears over security conditions and a breach of safety regulations in its recent qualifier with Jordan, according to a letter sent by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). “We notified FIFA of our decision. We nominated Qatar to host the matches of our national and Olympic teams. And now we are waiting for FIFA's answer,” Kamel Zeghyar, an Iraqi national football association member said. “I do not believe FIFA will reject this request especially after the Qatari Football Association (QFA) welcomed our request and expressed readiness to host the matches.” FIFA said the neutral ground should not be one of the countries where Iraq is scheduled to play qualifiers. IFA called the FIFA decision disappointing, but said it would respect the ruling and try to lift the ban. Iraq currently is third in Group A of the Asian qualifiers for the 2014 World Cup alongside Jordan, China and Singapore. Iraq's next heads to China to play its next match on October 11 against China. BM
