The 25th Gulf Cup, which takes place from January 6 to 19 in Basra, marks the return of Iraq to the organization of sporting events. Hosting this biennial event is expected to strengthen relations with Gulf neighbors.
The Iraqi city of Basra hosts from this Friday January 6 the Gulf Football Cup bringing together the host country with Oman, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Bahrain and Kuwait. A great challenge for Iraq, martyred by conflicts and rampant corruption.
Waiver of visa fees for foreign supporters
More than 10,000 foreign supporters made the trip to the big city in southern Iraq, according to a source within the regional administration. In mid-December, the Iraqi authorities announced the cancellation of visa fees for supporters attending the competition.
For the first time in more than 40 years, Iraq is organizing an edition of the Gulf Cup. The last one took place in 1979. Because after Saddam Hussein came to power that year, the war against Iran (1980-1988) took place, then the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq and the Gulf (1990-91), the invasion led by the United States (2003) and the fratricidal inter-confessional conflict (2006-2008).
Iraq was supposed to host a 2014 edition, but the tournament was eventually moved to Saudi Arabia due to security concerns. At the time, the jihadist group Islamic State (IS) occupied part of Iraqi territory, including Mosul, a large city in the north. Today, Iraq has just celebrated five years of its military “victory” over ISIS and, despite sporadic jihadist attacks against the army and the police in the north of the country, the oil country has returned to a semblance of stability.
So, until the Gulf Cup final on January 19, Basra and all of Iraq hope to be able to breathe a little… and welcome its neighbors with great fanfare, in particular Kuwait, which Iraq invaded and annexed. from the province of Basra, before being driven out by an international coalition at the beginning of 1991.
New stadiums
The organizers have gone into overdrive to equip themselves with infrastructure that will make people forget the ban on organizing international matches that has hit Iraq for many years because of instability and repeated conflicts. Basra now has two enclosures: the International Stadium inaugurated in 2013 with 65,000 seats and Al-Mina which has 30,000 seats and which was inaugurated two weeks before the tournament.
The city has had a makeover. The corniche has been renovated, hotels built, streets paved. In total, the Iraqi government has allocated $33 million to the Iraqi Football Federation to organize the Gulf Cup. After the invasion of Kuwait in 1990, which severed ties between Baghdad and other Gulf countries, the Iraqi team was banned from participating in the competition. She returned in 2004, a year after Saddam Hussein’s removal from power.
(With AFP)