Al-Zawraa and Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya will represent Iraq at this tournament's edition. Draw date is on 13 December 2016.
Group A: Al-Zawraa Al-Ahli Al Jaish Playoff winner between Al-Suwaiq / Shabab Al-Khalil Group B: Al-Hidd Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya Safa Al-Wahda
Disappointing that Al Zawraa couldn't beat a team about to be relegated in the Omani League. Hoping for better results in the next round. Would be amazing if the AFC Cup stays in Iraq.
Iraqi teams should dominate the AFC Cup now that the Kuwaiti teams are gone. It's basically a cup to give teams from smaller countries a chance and Iraq are the highest ranked nation. Iraqi clubs are actually meant to be in the AFC Champions League, I've read that the FA are trying to get all the teams to pass the requirements next season so lets hope that happens. We need to be playing the best in Asia in the top-tier competition if we want to improve, even if we get much worse results.
Reports that the AFC agreed to move the home games for Jawiya and Zawraa back to Iraq. Good first step towards lifting of the ban
Big news. Hope it's official. AFC Cup matches in Iraq will be a big boost for out clubs. Really tired of seeing Iraqi teams play in empty khaleeji stadiums.
I'm tired of the useless AFC Cup.. With all respect but teams from Oman and Syria aren't going to improve us. Meanwhile even teams from Hong Kong play in the AFC Champions League. It's ridiculous. Minimum should be finals in this season. We are the highest ranked country in the AFC Cup.
Poor from Jawiya. The format changed this season, so finishing 2nd in the group may not be enough to qualify this time. Good to see Zawraa have started winning their games comfortably though. This is what we should expect of Iraqi clubs in the AFC Cup. I think they will win it this year.
Al-Hidd 0-1 Jawiya Zawraa 1-1 Al-Ahli Both teams are through to the zonal semifinals, and will face each other on 15 and 29 May!
I don't like this format with zonal semifinals. It's clearly there to help weaker teams reach latter stages of the cup which makes the entire tournament a joke. Why can't they keep it simple with a normal format like any other competition? If the cup was properly formatted so that Jawiya and Al Zawraa aren't forced to face knock eachother out after the group stages, they would have had a very good chance to both go far, but instead we're forced to have only 1 iraqi team after the next stage.
To be honest the AFC Cup is a joke anyway, I mean the final is hosted by one of the finalists rather than being played at a neutral venue. Like what the hell? Just ruins the final by giving one team a clear advantage on the other. Imagine there was a draw to see which team hosted the UEFA Champions League final each year. It would be a laughing stock. At least in the past we had teams from Kuwait and Uzbekistan competing in the AFC Cup, we don't even have that anymore. And now they've made it so that weak teams from East Asia like Bengaluru are guaranteed a spot in the final which ruins what should be the showpiece game. We need to get our teams into the AFC Champions League, I don't want our teams in this 'developing nations cup'. I'm personally more excited for the Arab Club Championship. Teams like Al-Hilal and Zamalek will be there who are actually giants of Asia/Africa and I'm interested to see how Naft Al-Wasat will perform. I hope the Arab federation hold it every season from now on rather than every 3 or 4 seasons like they have been doing recently.
Agreed. They ruined the AFC competitions with their West vs East format, but at the end of the day 1 team has to go through and at least we'll get an amazing clasico in the AFC Cup Hopefully they can manage to bring both legs to Iraq. It would be a good chance to show the world that Iraq can host international matches, and a clasico as big as this one should be played in our own country instead of an empty stadium in Doha.
Latest news is that AFC agreed to play the first leg in Erbil, second leg will be played in Basra. @Iraqfpg Now our IFA is trying to move the first leg to Karbala (seems much more logical, Erbil is not the right place to host matches).
Why are the games being played in 2 different cities? Both are Baghdad based so why not play both games in Basra or something? Moving the game for both legs just complicates things.
Both matches will be in Erbil so long as both teams accept it. Ridiculous that they can't play in Basra or Karbala. Erbil is a hostil area for Iraqi teams, and both clubs are Iraqi so I don't see why it matters for AFC if they are in Erbil or somewhere else in Iraq.
Apparently because both cities haven't been tested out. I'd rather play in Doha than in Erbil to be honest. If we mess up, the ban will never be lifted anymore.